Shortly after the sixth Comintern Congress the tenth Plenum of the ECCI introduced the ultra-left third Period whose embryonic character was already present in some of the sixth congress compromises. The bankruptcy of this line became clear after its disastrous results in Germany and elsewhere, showing the need for a new course.
The new course of the Seventh Congress was a seemingly remarkable shift from the ultra-left to the ultra-right, a shift that both pleased and disoriented many Communists. Communists were pleased because it meant an end to the sectarian isolation of the Third Period, and disoriented because this shift contained little self-criticism concerning the Comintern’s previous direction and the reasons for that direction’s abandonment.
This shift was not as much of a change as one would assume, but merely a different expression of the same problematic whose lack of rigor concerning the class question was key. A hazy and indefinite conception of class forces and struggle were juggled about, as Comintern history shows, with little concern for their complexity, the result being “either/or” swings from the Communist Party being the working class, to the Popular Front where non-fascist bourgeois elements were touted as being the “people”, with little or no warning as to the possible consequences of such a strategy.
As a graphic example of the political results of theoretical poverty an understanding of the “turns” of the Comintern throws light on the basis for similar turns in other Communist movements including ours.
1. What did the strategy of the United and Popular fronts consist of? How did it condition the work of Communists in the trade unions and the relation of Communists to other parties? How is this similar to the CPUSA’s “anti-monopoly” strategy?
2. What is the new definition of fascism as stated by the 7th Congress? Is Dimitrov’s understanding of fascism a significant contribution to Marxism-Leninism? Is the class question handled adequately in it?
3. How does Jay Lovestone use the primacy of class struggle to illustrate the political and theoretical errors of the Third Period and the Popular Front? How is the unity of theoretical and political practice perceived?
4. Discuss Poulantzas’ presentation of the history of the United and Popular fronts in the Comintern. Discuss his critique of the class basis of fascism, the links between the United and Popular fronts, and Dimitrov’s view of bourgeois democracy.
Nicos Poulantzas, Fascism and Dictatorship, pp. 156-165.
Georgi Dimitrov, Selected Works, Vol. 2, pp. 7-37, 54-58, 83-85, 92-95, 100-106.
Jay Lovestone, Peoples Front Illusion, pp. 3-12.