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From New International, Vol. I No. 1, July 1934, p. 30.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
THE main achievement of the recent national conference of the Communist Party of Germany – Opposition (the Brandler group) was the resolution to petition the Comintern for permission to attend the seventh world congress (the Strassburg Neue Welt, No. 99). In this connection the Brandlerites point out that a collaboration at the base is already taking place “in spite of still existing tactical differences in various questions”. They point to “a) Agreement with the principles and aims of Communism [the principles of ‘national and social liberation’? B.]; b) joint struggle against the Fascist dictatorship, reformism, centrism and Trotskyism”. They declare that they never had any other conception than the defense of their views within the framework of the discipline of the Communist International and the Communist party. They also declare themselves finally prepared “to establish whether and to what extent the tactical differences existing up to now can be overcome”.
This offer of capitulation – for it cannot be and was not meant to be anything but that – does not come as a surprise. The CPG-O was never anything but a kind of sulky bureaucratic lackey of Stalinism. By preserving silence on the Russian question and the real roots of the “ultra-Leftist” aberrations of the Communist Party of Germany, they continually misled the workers no less than did the Stalinist priesthood. Inasmuch as they confined everything to tactical questions even after the German defeat and, veiling the bankruptcy of the Stalinists, continued to stand for the reform of the Third International, they covered up with their feeble forces this crime against the German and the international working class.
This policy, which led to a complete collapse of their international organization (loss of the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Swiss, the Czechoslovaks, etc., the split in Germany – left are only Lovestone and the Oh! so Communist mayor of Strassburg, Hueber, who holds office by grace of the clericals and the German Fascists), had to end in capitulation. The best preparation for finding favor in the eyes of Stalin has always been the baiting of “Trotskyism”. And in this domain the Brandlerites have done all that was humanly possible. Not only the infamous passage of the declaration of capitulation where Fascism and Trotskyism are put side by side, but elsewhere too, no lie has been too stupid, too provocative, too filthy not to be used by them. And ever and always in the primordial-Communist sheet of Mr. Hueber. The conference resolution also fantastically imputes to us again – as well as to the leadership of the Socialist Workers Party, which is after all flesh of the flesh of Brandler – a theory of the “counter-revolutionary epoch”, which, as those who follow our press know, we have never even dreamed of. These are the “renovators” of the Communist movement!
The capitulation is not only being prepared by the reprinting of the products of Radek and Stalin, but above all the Brandlerites are now also striving to exterminate radically all the political differences with the Stalinists which they still retained with their last remnant of reason. The general slogan of the national conference reads: “Transition to action.” Even the Stalinists could not be more stupid. From this to the theory of the revolutionary upsurge is no longer a great distance.
But even if the political nuances between the centrist brethren should be entirely straightened out, it will be hard to find grace, and they will not get off so cheaply. For capitulation, complete political suicide is required. Without capitulation, and on the basis of their line for the “reform of the CI”, they can only vegetate and be ruined with their new wisdom. These are the “perspectives” of the Brandlerites, despite certain organizational reserves which they still have in Germany. Their latest step, however, will contribute signally to the enlightenment of those good working class elements who landed in their ranks at one time with the erroneous opinion that they were dealing with a genuine opposition. Not by self-debasement before miserable bankrupts, but only in the struggle against all the enemies and perversions of Communism, for a new Communist party and International, can the proletariat be served, the defeated movement be advanced, and the given possibilities in the non-Fascist countries be utilized.
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