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otatutes of the THIRD INTERNATIONAL
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Cover
The Tatlin Tower -— Monument for the Third International,
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Statutes of the Third International
The Twenty-One Points
These are the Twenty-One conditions for admission into the Commmnist International
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Contents
Introduction 1 Statutes of the Communist International* 3 The Twenty-One Points i) Notes as)
* Usually referred to as the Third International
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Introduction
These two not-so-well known articles are interests ing illustrations of Lenin's flexibility in the matter of party organisation, Popular myth, ouch aided by the perversions of Stalinism, portrays Lenin as haying a single model for party organisation, This model is a completely rigid one - independent of time, space or circumstance, According to this myth Lenin split with Mensheviks at the @nd, Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party solely on the issue of a few words in the rules of membership (which is factually inaceurate - the split was on another issue), Therefore Leninism is synonymous with "hardness" in organise ation and a strong centralised party in which the members blindly carry out orders from above, ‘The organisation is naturally hard to join, bike all myths, this particular misrepresentation takes one aspect of the truth and presents it as the whole truth, ilowever obviously inaccurate this myth may be it has been used to justify monstrous inner party regimes = and not only Stalinist ones.
These two articles show, on the contrary, that Lenin's concepts were above all conerete, In 1905, a revolution in Russia was in process, Weakened by its disastrous war against Japan, the Tsarist aut+ 1
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ocracy was not strong enough to completely suppress the rwvolutionary movement; as Lenin said, "Tsariam is no longer strong enough to defeat the revolution, the revolution is not vet strong enough to defent tsarism,"'
The vast mass of workers were extremely combative, ready to engage in mortal combat, But the marxiat vaniuard was relatively weak, and mainly led by people who had been forced into exile, thus being isolated from the mass movement,
tnder tuese circumstances the crying need was to win into the party large numbers of the revolutionary workers, The Menshevik argument that this would mean diluting the party was met by Lenin arguing: (1) that firm party principles had been established which would assist the assimilation of large numbers of workers; and (2) workers joining the party in a period of revolutionary struggle would learn marxiat principles extremely quickly. The second of the two articles shows another aspect of Lenin's views = formulas for adopting the press of the party to the new "legal" eonditions, As such, it is rich with Lenin's basie concepts on the relationship of party organisation and party literature,
It should be noted that the term "social-democrat" ia used by Lenin in its pre-1914 sense, as synonymous with revolutionary socialist.
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—— ai
Stcitutes of the l
Adopted at the Second Congress of the Communist International, Moscow, duly - August 1920
In 1864 the International Working Men's Associa tion, the First International, was founded in London. Its provisional rules! ran as follows:
That the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves; that the struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a struggle for class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of all class rule;
'That the economical subjection of the man of labour to the monopolizer of the means of labow that is the sources of life, lies at the bottom of servitude in all its forms, of all social misery, mental degradation, and political dependence}
'That the economical emancipation of the working classes is therefore the great end to which every political movement cought to be subordinate aS a means}
'That all efforts aiming at that great end have hitherto failed from the want of solidarity hetween the manifold divisions of labour in each d
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country, and from the absence of a fraternal bond of union between the working classes of different countries;
'That the emancipation of labour is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution on the concurrence, pratical and theoretical, of the most advanced countries;
'That the present revival of the working classes in the most industrious countries of Europe, while it raises a new hope, give solemn warning . against a relapse into the old errors and calls for the immediate combination of the still disconnected movementa,!
The Second International, founded in Paris in 1889, undertook to carry on the work of the First International, But in 1914, at the beginning of the world slaughter, it suffered com plete breakdown, Undermined by opportunism and shattered by the treachery of its leaders, whe went over to the side of the bourgeoisie, the Second International collapsed,
The Communist International, founded in March 1919 in the capital of the Russian Federal Soviet Republic’ Moscow, solemnly declares before the entire world that it undertakes to continne and to carry through to the end the great work begun by the First International Working Men's Association,
The Communist International was formed after the conclusion of the imperialist war of 1914-18, m which the imperialist bourgeoisie of the differ ent countries sacrificed twenty million men,
‘Remember the imperialist wart! These are the first words addressed by the Communist International te every working man and woman, wherever they live and whatever language they speak, Hemember that because of the existence of cap- 4
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italist society a handful of imperialists were able to foree the workers of the different cour tries for four long years to cut each other's throats, Kemember that the war of the bourgeoisie conjured up in Europe and throughout the world the most frightful famine and the most appalling misery. Hemember that without the overthrow of capitalism, the repetition of such robber wars is not only possible, but inevitable,
It is the aim of the Communist International to fight by all available means, including armed struggle, for the overthrow of the international hourgeoisie and for the creation olf an international Soviet? republic as a transitional stage to the complete abolition of the State, The Communist International considers the dietatorship of the proletariat the only possible way to liberate mankind from the horrors of capitalism, And the Commmist International considers the Soviet power the historically given form of this dictatorship of the proletariat,
The imperialist war hound the destinies of the proletariat of each country very closely to the destinies of the proletariat of all other countries, The imperialist war once again confirmed what was written in the Statutes of the First International: the emancipation of the workers is not a local, nor a national, but an international problem,
The Communist International breaks onee and for all with the traditions of the Second International? for whom in fact only white-skinned people existed, The task of the Communist International is to liberate the working people of the entire world. In its ranks, the white, the yellow, and the black-skinned peoples the working people of the entire world - are fraternally united,
The Communist International supports to the full 5
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the conquests of the great proletarian revolution in Russia, the first victorious Socialist revolution in world history, and calls on the proletariat of the entire world to take the same path, The Communist International undertakes to support every Soviet republic, whereyer it may be formed,
The Communist International recognizes that in order to hasten victory, the Working Men's Association, which is fighting to annihilate capitalism and create Comminism, must have a atronghy centralized organisation, The Communist International must, in fact and in deed, be a single Communist party of the entire world, The parties working in the various countries are but its separate sections, The organizational machinery of the Communist International must fuarantee the workers of each country the opportunity of getting the utmost help from the arganized proletariat of other countries at any given moment,
For this purpose the Communist International ratifies the following Statutes:
1. The new international association of workers is established to organize joint action by the proletariat of the different countries which pursue the one goal: the overthrow of capitalism, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat and of an international Soviet republic which will completely abolish all elasses and realize Socialism, the first stage of Communist society 6 a, The new international association of workers is called "The Communist International",
3. All parties belonging to the Communist International bear the name “Commnist party of such and such a country (Section of the Communist International)",
4, The supreme authority in the Communist In- 6
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ternational is the world congress of all the parties and organizations which belong to it, The world congress meets regularly once a year, The world congress alone is empowered to change the programme of the Communist International, The world congress discusses and decides the most important questions of programme and tactics connected with the activities of the Commnist International, The number of votes to which each party or organization is entitled shall be fixed by special congress decision.
5. The wrld congress elects the Executive Committee of the Communist International, which is the directing body of the Communist International in the period between its world congresses, The Executive Committee is responsible only to the world congress,
6, The seat of the Executive Committee of the Commnist International shall be determined on each oecasion by the world congress of the Communiest International,
Ys <§An extraordinary world congress of the Communist International may be convened either by a decision of the Executive Committee or at the request of half the parties which belonged to the Communist International at the time of its preceding world congress,
8, The chief wrk of the Executive Committee falls on the party of that country where, by decision of the world congress, the Executive Committee has its seat, The party of the country im question shall have five representatives with full voting powers on the Executive Committee, In addition the ten to thirteen most important Communist parties, the list to be rat ified by the regular world congress, shall each have one representative with full voting powers on the Executive Committee, Other orfunizations and parties accepted by the Communist Invernational have the right to deleif
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gate to the Executive Committee one representative each, with consultative voice, 4, The Executive Committee conducts the entire work of the Communist International from one congress to the next, publishes, in at least four languages, the central organ of the Communist International (the periodical COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL), issues any necessary appeals in the name of the Communist International, and igsues instructions which are binding on all Parties and organizations belonging to the Communist International, The Executive Committee of the Communist International has the right to demand that parties belonging to the International shall expel groups or persons who offend against international diseipline, and it also has the right to expel from the Communist International those parties which violate decisions of the world congress, These parties have the right to appeal to the world congress, Should the need arise the Executive Committee shall set up in the various countries its technical and other auxiliary bureaux, which are wholly subordinate to the Executive Committee, The representatives of the Executive Committee shall earry out their political tasks in closest contact with the party centre of the country concerned,
10, The Executive Committee of the Communist International has the right to co-opt on to the committee, with consultative voice, representatives of organizations and parties which, while not belonging to the Communist International, sympathize with and stand near to it,
11, The press organa of all parties and all organizations which belong to the Communist International, and those which are recognized as sympathiging parties and organizations, are bound to publish all official decisions of the Communist International and its Executive Committee,
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12. The general situation all over Burope and America compels Communists throughout the world to create illegal Commmnist organizations side by side with the legal organization,® The Executive Committee is obliged to see that this is put into effect everywhere,
13. «As a rule political communication between the individual parties belonging to the Communist International will be conducted through the H,C.C,1, In urgent cases communications may be direct, but the E,C.C.1I, shall be simultaneously informed,
14, Trade unions adhering to the Communist platform and organized internationally under the leadership of the Comminist International, shall form a trade-union section of the Communist International, These trade unions shall send their representatives to the world congresses of the Commnist International throughout the Communist parties of the countries concernced, The trade-union section of the Communist International shall have one representative with full voting powers on the E.C,C,I, The E.C.c.1L has the right to send one representative with full voting powers to the trade-union section of the Commmist International,
15, The Communist Youth International is, like all other members of the Communist International, subordinate to the Communist International «and its Executive Committee, Yhe Executive Committee of Communist Youth International has one representative with full voting powers on the E,.C.C.1. The E.C.C.1,. has the right to send one representative with full voting powera to the Executive Committee of the Communist Youth International,
16, Whe E.C,C,1, confirms the appointment of the international secretary of the Communist women's movement and shall organize the women's section of the Communist International,
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17. When moving from one country to another every member of the Commnist International shall receive the fraternal help of the local members of the Communist International,
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The Twenty-One Points
Adopted at the Second Congress of the Commnist International, Moscow, July- August 1920
The Firet Congress of the Communist International did not draw up any precise conditions for the admission of parties to the Third International, When the first congress was convened there were in the majority of countries only Communist TRENDS and GROUPS,
The Second Congress of the Commmist International is meeting in different circumstances, At the present time there are in most countries not only Communist trends and tendencies, but Coumminist PARTIES and OWGANIZATIONS,
Application for admission Luo the Communist International is now frequently made by parties and groups which up to a short time ago still belonged to the Second International, but which have not in fact become Communist. The Second International has finally broken down, ‘The inbetween parties and the centrist groups, seeing the utter hopelessness of the Second International, are trying to find a support in the Comminist International, which is growing steadily 1a
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stronger, Hub in doing so they hope to retain enough “autonomy" to enable them to continue their former opportunist or "centrist" policy. The Commnist International is becoming, to some extent, fashionable,
The desire of some leading "centrist" groupe to join the Commnist International indirectly confirms that it has won the sympathies of the overwhelming majority of the class-cons¢ious workers of the entire world, and that wi th every dayit is becoming a more powerful force,
The Communist International is threatened hy the danger of dilution by unstable and irresolute elements which have not yet completely discarded the ideology of the Second International,
Moreover, in some of the larger parties (Italy, Sweden, Norway, Yugoslavia, ete.) where the majority adhere to the Communist standpoint, there still remains even today a reformist and social-pacifist wing which is only waiting a favourable moment to raise its head again and start active sabotage of the proletarian revolution and so help the bourgeoisie and the Second International , No communist should lorget the lessons of the Hungarian revolution,’ The Hungarian proletariat paid a high price for the fusion of the Hungarian Communists with the so-called "left" Social Democrats,
Consequently, the Second Congress of the Communist International thinks it necessary to lay down quite precisely the conditions of admission of new parties, and to point out to those parties which have already joined the duties imposed on them,
The Second Congresa of the Communist Internatin onal puts forward the following conditions of adherence to the Commmnist International:
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4. All propavanda and agitation must he of a genuinely Communist character and in conformity with the programe and decisions of the Communist International, The entire party press must he run by reliable Communists who have proved their devolion to the cause of the proletariat, The dictatorship of the proletariat is to he treated not simply as a current formula learned by rote; it must be advocated in a way which makes its necessity comprehensible to every ordinary working man and woman, every soldier and peasant, from the facts of their daily life, which must be systematically noted in our prees and made use of every day,
The periodical press and other publications, and all party publishing houses, must be completely subordinated to the party Presidium, regardless of whether the party as a whole is at the given moment legal or illegal. Publishing houses must not be allowed to abuse their independence and pursue a policy which ia not wholly in aecordance with the policy of the party.
In the columns of the press, at popular meetings, in the trade unions and co-operatives, wherever the adherents of the Communist International have an entry, it is necessary to denounce, systematically and unrelentingly, not only the bourgeoisie, but also their assistants, the refornists of all shades,
2, Every organization which wishes to join the Communist international must, in an or= derly and planned fashion, remove reformists and centrists from all responsible positions in the workers! movement (party organizations, editorial boards, trade unions, parliamentary fractions, co-operatives, local government bodies) and replace them by tried Commnists, eyen if, particularly at the beginning, "experienced" opportunists haye to be replaced hy ordinary rank anil file workers,
3, In pratically every country of Enrope and 12
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America the class struggle is entering the phase of civil war, In these circumstances Communists can have no confidenee in bourgeois legality, They are obliged everywhere to ereate a parallel illegal organisation which at the decisive moment will help the party to do its duty to the revolution, In all thoae countries where, because of a state of siege or of emergency laws, Communists are unable to do all their work legally, it is absolutely essential to combine legal and illegal work,
4, The obligation to spread Commnist ideas includes the special obligation to carry on systematic and energetic propaganda in the army. Where such agitation is prevented by emergency laws, it mist be carried on illegally. Refusal to undertake such work would he tantamount to a dereliction of revolutionary duty and is incompatible with membership of the Communist International,
5. Systematic and well-planned agitation must be carried on in the countryside, The working class cannot consolidate its victory if it has not by its policy assured itself of the support of at least part of the rural proletariat and the poorest peasants, and of the neutrality of part of the rest of the rural population, At the present time Communist work in rural areas is acquiring Lirst-rate importance, Tt should be conducted primarily with the help of revolutionary Communist urban and rural workers who have close connections with the countryside. To neglect this work, or to leave il in unreliable semi-reformist hands, is tantamount to renouncing the proletarian revolution,
6, Every party which wishes to join the Communist International is obliged to expose not only avowed social-patriotism, but also the insincerity and hypocrisy of social-pacifism; to bring home to the workers systematically that without the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism no international court of arbitration, 13
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no agreement to limit armaments, no "democratic! reorganization of the League of Nations, will be able to prevent new imperialist wars.
7. ‘Parties which wish to join the Communist International are obliged to recognize the neceessity for a complete and absolute break with reformism and with the policy of the "centre", and to advocate this break as widely as possible among their members, Without that no consistent Communist policy is possible,
The Communist International demands unconditionally and categorically that this break be effected as quickly as possible, The Communiat International is unable to agree that notorious opportunists, such as Turati, Modigliani, Kautsky, Hilferding, Hilquit, Lonquet, MacDonald® ete., Shall have the right to appear az members of the Communist International, That could only lead to the Communist International becoming in many respects similar to the Second International, which has gone to pieces,
8, A particularly explicit and clear attitude on the question of the colonies and the oppressed peoples is necessary for the parties in those countries where the bourgeoisie possess colonies and oppress other nations, Every party which wishes to join the Communist International is obliged to expose the tricks and dodges of "ite" imperialists in the colonies, to support every colonial liberation moyement not merely in words hut in deeds, to demand the expulsion of their own imperialists from these colonies, to inculcate among the wor kers of their country a genuinely fraternal attitude to the working people of the colonies and the oppressed nations, and to carry on syatematic agitation among the troops of their country against any oppression of the colonial peoples,
9, Every party which wishes to join the Com- 44
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munist International must carry on systematic and persistent Commnist activity inside the trade unions, the workers! councils and factory committees, the co-operatives, and other mass workers! organizations, Within these orfanizations Communist cells must he organized which shall by persistent and unflagging work win the trade unions, ancl for the Communist cause, In their daily work the cells must every where expose the treachery ‘of the social-oat-— riots andthe instability of the “centre”. The Communist cells must be completely subordinate to the party as a whole,
10. Every Party belonging ta the Communist International is obliged to wage an unyielding atrugele against the Amsterdam "International" of the yellow trade unions, It must conduct the most vigorous propaganda among trade unionists for the necessity of a break with the yellow Amsterdam International, It must do all it can to support the International Association of Red Trade Unions, adhering to the Communist International, which is being formed, 11, Parties which wish to join the Communist International are obliged to review the personnel of their parliamentary fractions and remove all unreliable elements, to make these fractions not only verbally but in fact subordinate to the party Presidium, requiring of each individual Communist member of parliament that he subordinate his entire activity to the interests of genuinely revolutionary propaganda and agitation,
12, Parties belonging to the Communist International must be based on the principle of DEMOCRATIC CANTRALISM, In the present epoch of acute civil war the Communist party will be able Lo fulfil its duty only if its organization is a5 centralized as possible, if iron discipline prevails, and if the party centre, upheld by the confidence of the party membership, has strength and authority and is aquip-
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ped with the most comprehensive powers. 13, Communist parties in those countries where Communists carry on their work legally must from time to time undertake cleansing (re-re- Pistration) of the membership of the party in order to get rid of any petty-hourgeois elements which have crept in,
14, Every party which wishes to join the Communist International is obliged to give unconditional support to any Soviet republic in its struggle against counter-revolutionary forces, Communist parties must carry on unambiguous propaganda to prevent the dispatch of munitions transports to the enemies of the Soviet republies; they must also carry on propaganda by every means, legal or illegal, among the troops sent to strangle workers!’ republics,
15. Parties which still retain their old Social Democratic programmes are obliged to revise them as quickly as possible, and to draw up, in aceordance with the special conditions of their country, a new Communist programme in conformity with the decisions of the Commniet International, As a rule the programme of every party belonging to the Communist International must be ratified by the wgular congress of the Communist International or by the Executive Com-mittee, Should the programme of a party not be ratified by the E,C,C,1., the party concerned ha the right to appeal to the congress of the Com tunist International,
16, All the decisions of the congresses of the Communist International, as well as the decisions of its Executive Committee, are binding on all parties belonging to the Communist International, The Communist International, working in conditions. of acute civil war, must be far more centralized in its atructure than was the Second International, Gonsideration must of course be given by the Communist International and its Executive Committee in all
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their activities to the varying conditions in which the individual parties have to fight and work, and they must take decisions of general validity only when such decisions are possible,
i7. In this connection, all parties which wish to join the Communist International must change their names, Every party which wishes to join the Communist International must be called COMMUNIST party of such and such a country (section of the Communist International), This question of name is not merely a formal matter, but essentially a political question of great importance, The Communist International has declared war on the entire bourweois world and on all yellow Social Demoeratic parties, The difference between the Communist parties and the old official “Social Democratic" or "Socialist" parties, which have betrayed the banner of the working class, must be brought home to every ordinary worker,
18, All leading party press organs in all countries are obliged to publish all important official documents of the Executive Committee of the Communist International,
19, <All parties belonging to the Communist International and those which have applied for admission, are obliged to convene an extraordinary congress as soon as possible, and in any case not later than four months after the second Congresa of the Communist International, to examine all these conditions of admissyon. In this connection all party centres must see that the decisions of the Second Conzress of the Communist International are made known to all local organizations,
20, Those parties which now wish to join the Comminiat International, but which have not radically changed their former tactics, must see to it that, before entering the Communist International, not lesa than two thirds of the
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members of their central committee and of all their leading central bodies consist of comrades who publicly and unambiguously advocated the entry of their party into the Communist International before its second congress, Exceptions can be made with the consent of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, The E,C.C,1, also has the right to make ex-ceptions in the case of representatives of the centre mentioned in paragraph 7,
21, Those members of the party who rejeet in principle the conditions and theses put forward by the Communist International are to be expelled from the party, The same applies in particular to delegates to the extraordinary congresses,
Notes
(1) These rules were drafted by Karl Marx. (2) This was before the U.S.5.R, (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) had been formed, (3) Soviet - the Russian word for committee, Soviet Republic means a state power based upon mass democracy resting on the Soviet form of organisation, i.e, continuously meeting bodies based upon work-units, which elect recallable representatives who receive no more pay than the average skilled worker, (4) The Second International was overwhelmingly dominated by the mass Social Democratic parties of West Europe. These parties adopted a more and more chauvinist attitude towards the empires of "their" hourgecisies,
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(5) Communist here is used jn its social and economic, not political, sense, See “Critique of the Gotha Programme" by Marx for an examination of this foneept . (6) This coneepl of having an illegal organisation existing side by side with a legal one was related to extreme condition of represaion existing in may to extremes conditions of repression existing in many countries. The main purpose of this was to ensure that there was no break-down of the organisation if there wore mane arrests, (7) This refers to the short-lived Hungarian revyolution of 1919, The unassimilated social denoerates acted as o "Trojan horee" when the Hungarian Soviet republic waa under atlack by a reactionary coalition, (8)furati, Modigliani, Kautsky, lilquit, Longuet and MacDonald were former leaders of the 2nd, [International who at that time were in organisations seeking affiliation to the Third International. Consummate centriste and in most cases pacifists, they were vaeillating because of the growing popularity of the Comintern, (9) The Amsterdam (rade Union International was associated with attempts to re-establish the 2nd, International after the first World War,
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