,_1 I THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL September, 1933 Prices Post Free I copy 4id. I4 copies IS. 6d. roo coptes I4S. od. From the Labour Publications Dept.? Transport House, Smith Square? London, S.W.r I 'I I 0 THE COMMUNIST SOLAR SYSTEM R. HARRY POLLITT*, leader of the Communist Party of Great Britain, has been compelled to make the tortuous policy M of the United Front as plain as he can to his Communist friends. He hopes that it " won't be necessary to have to keep writing long letters and articles explaining what the United Front is." This pamphlet has a like origin. In the midst of a world crisis, born of war, and bearing within itself the seeds of new wars, lovers of freedom have seen how the militarist apparatus may destroy overnight civil and political liberties which are the warp and woof of civilisation. Impressed by the fratricidal warfare between Communists and Social Democrats in Germany, there are even members of the Labour Party who draw false con­ elusions. They seem to imagine that it can be attributed to some inexplicable refusal by the Socialist Parties of an offer of sincere co­ operation by the Communists in the name of the United Front. This is a great illusion. THE UNITED FRONT ' ' The aim of the Communist International is to organise an armed struggle for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and the establishment of an international Soviet Republic as a transition to the complete abolition of the Capitalist State.' 't This is the "fundamental task" of every Communist Party. The German Communist Party was the only powerful Communist Party in the 'vorld, outside of Russia. They performed their fundamental task literally, relentlessly, even unscrupulously. They entered Parliament, as prescribed by their rules, '' not for the purpose of organic work, but in order to destroy Parliament itself from within," ' and, through the failure of Parliamentary democracy, to add political disorder to economic disorder. The collapse of the "bourgeois State "-the whole machinery of local, state and central government­ was to be the inaugural ceremony of the German Soviet Republic. To accomplish this end, they made a de facto United Front with the ' Nationalists and the Nazis in the Reichstag and State Parliaments­ especially in Prussia, where the Socialists were the predominant influence in politics. During the past ten years, one-half of the votes of censure against the Prussian Government were moved by Com­ munists and supported by Nationalists and Nazis; the other half were initiated by Nationalists and Nazis and supported by Com­ munists. Communists, Nationalists and Nazis together were the modern Guy Fawkes Coalition which sought to blow up the German Parliament. * " The Road to Victory." By Harry Pollitt. Speeches at T1.~:eljth Congress of the Communist Party of Great Britain, Battersea, November, 1932. t The Statutes and Conditions of the Communist International. I Communists and Nazis likewise sought to undermine the Trade Union Movement. Both denounced Capitalism. In strikes and street riots they made a United Front against Trade Union officials, and were fertile in the manufacture of grievances, notably when the workers were employees of a municipality with a Socialist majority. \Vhen the Nazis were gaining ground and the Nationalist wave was overwhelming Germany, the Communists outrivalled the Nazis in the fervour of their nationalism. They exploited " every trick of demagogic mysticism" evoked by German patriotism from the real and imaginary grievances attributed to the Peace Treaties. They promised the liberation of "countless millions" of Germans in "Alsace­ Lorraine, \Vest and East Prussia, Poland, Upper Silesia, South Tyrol, . under the tyrannous rule of Belgium and Lithuania and the Fascist barbarism of Mussolini."* Communists and Nazis pursued the same policy to different ends. Rank and file enthusiasts were often confused. Communist Red Front Fighter and Nazi Storm Trooper could and did change uniforms without any profound sense of political dishonesty. At the polls, Nazis gained thousands of votes which the Communists lost. Parlia­ ment was destroyed from within, and then was destroyed from without by the Communist, Nazi and Nationalist voters themselves. The Communists ·who had done their best with the Nazis to destroy Democracy castigated the Trade Unionists for not going on strike to save it. Other Communists, now in Nazi uniforms, took part in the capture of the Trade Unions. The "revolutionary situation" came to pass. But the balance of forces was not in accordance with Communist plans or predictions. The " armed struggle " came. But it was very one­ sided. The arms were not in the hands of the workers. But the triumph of Hitlerism revealed the Communist International as blame­ less and impenitent! They denounced the Social Democrats! A TACTICAL MANCEUVRE The United Front was the battle-cry of Communism at war with German Social Democracy and Trade Unionism. It was a slogan, and nothing but a slogan. It is still their slogan. On the eve of the German Elections the Labour and Socialist International put Com­ munist good faith to the test of true solidarity. \Vhen the German people had been condemned to chains and slavery, the Communist International unmasked its guns : " As for the leaders of the Second International (the Labour and Socialist International, to which the Labour Party is affiliated), negotiations between officials at the top are merely a method of delaying, hindering and disrupting the United Front of the working-class. On the basis of true workers' democracy, only the United Front from below will ensure the successful fulfilment of this central task of the \vorld workers' movement at the present time."t *Joint Proclamation of the Conmzunist Parties of Germany and France for the Cancellation of the Versailles Treaty, "Jnprecorr," October 27, 1932. t ..11ay Day ...Vlanifesto, 1933. "Daily Worker," April 29, 1933. 2 This was a formal and final rejection of a straightforward United Front upon the basis of frank and sincere negotiations between re­ sponsible representatives. Once again Communist duplicity stood self-revealed. A naked exposure was inevitable. In Communist gibberish, Socialist or Trades Union leaders are "lackeys of the bourgeoisie." During the Great \Var, they were separated into "Social-Patriots" and "Social-Pacifists." Now they are all dubbed " Social-Fascists." Mr. Adolf Hitler is a " Fascist." Mr. George Lansbury is a " Social Fascist." The British Labour Party is officially described in Communist circles as a Party of " Social-Fascists." A United Front of Communism and " Social-Fascism" is, of course, inconceivable to the pundits of the Communist International. Mr. Stalin himself had laid it down* that "the United Front tactics were set up by Lenin in order to make it easier for the millions of workers in capitalist countries who are infected by the prejudices of Social Democratic opportunism to come over to Communism." The British Labour Party is now the most formidable of all the Parties thus "infected." .Nlembers of the Party have the highest authority for believing that the United Front is a tactical manreuvre devised to bring the Party members into touch with the Communist intelligentsia, and ultimately under their leadership. COMMUNISM IN DISGUISE How is this to be done ? According to their rules, Communists must join the " Social-Fascist" organisations-the Labour and Socialist Parties and the Trade Unions, Co-operative " and other class organisations of the workers "-and form \Vithin them Communist groups in subordination to the Communist Party as a whole. But when found out, Communists are expelled from the British Labour Party. The Communist way out of this dilemma is the "sympathising mass organisation." Communists in disguise are now at work in Labour Party and Trade Union branches and Co-operative Societies pro­ posing affiliation to these auxiliary organisations of the Communist Party. An illuminating definition of their functions was given by Mr. Kuusinent (of Moscow). "\Ve must create a whole solar system of organisations and smaller committees around the Communist Party, so to speak, smaller organisations working actually under the influence of our Party (not under mechanical leadership)." Galileo, from his observations of the solar system, derived two conclusions from these wonderful phenomena, " appealing to the evidence of our senses": (I) that the planets are not self-luminous, and (2) that they revolve round the sun. The Inquisition compelled Galileo to deny the evidence of his senses. British subjects are fortunately not the victims of such compulsion. •" Die lnternationale," 1932, p. 312 t E.C.C.I. "Inprecorr," 1926, p. 402. 3 The true inventor of the "sympathising mass organisations" is the German Communist, Mr. \Villi Muenzenberg, formerly of Berlin, now of Paris. In Berlin, they were known as" Muenzenberg Shows." He is the versatile author and producer of every piece. He chooses the titles. He is the unseen prompter, stage manager and scene shifter. The Workers' International Relief was his first and greatest success. \Vhen the Communist International became convinced" that the action of the Revolution is hanging fire," he endeavoured ''to extend the basis under cover of the United Front slogan." " The \V.I. R.," said Mr. Muenzenberg* " can take steps which the political parties cannot take." " Now we must get hold of other groups under other names." The formation of the Friends of Soviet Russia, now renamed the Friends of the Soviet Union, was of particular importance. In a mood of affected indifference and boredom, he added that "personally these do not interest me very much, and it is not really interesting to form these Innocents' Clubs." ~evertheless, "we must penetrate every conceivable milieu, get hold of artists and professors, make use of theatres and cinemas, and spread abroad the doctrine that Russia is prepared to sacrifice everything to keep the world at peace.