VII The Perspective and Problems Involved

37. The war did not have, as its immediate consequence, a proletarian revolution, and the bourgeoisie has some ground to register this fact, as a great victory for itself.

Only dullards can find consolation in the fact that because the European proletariat did not succeed in overthrowing the bourgeoisie during the war or immediately after it, this is an indication that the programme of the Communist International failed. The Communist International is basing its policy on the proletarian revolution, but this by no means implies either dogmatically fixing any definite date for the revolution, or any pledge to bring it about mechanically at a set time. Revolution has always been, and is today, nothing else than a struggle of living forces carried on within given historic conditions. The war has destroyed capitalist equilibrium all over the world, thus creating conditions favouring the proletariat, which is the fundamental force of the revolution. The Communist International has been exerting all its efforts to take full advantage of these conditions.

The distinction between the Communist International and the social democrats of all colours, does not consist in the fact that we are trying to force the revolution and set a definite date for it, while they are opposed to any utopian and immature uprisings. No, the distinction lies in the fact that Social Democrats hinder the actual development of the revolution by rendering all possible assistance in the way of restoring the equilibrium of the bourgeois State, while the Communists, on the other hand, are trying to take advantage of all means and methods for the purpose of overthrowing and destroying the capitalist government and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat.

During the two and a half years following the war, the proletarians of certain countries exhibited such self-sacrifice, energy and readiness for the struggle as would have sufficed to have made the revolution triumphant, provided there had been a strong centralised international Communist Party on the scene ready for action. But, during the war, and immediately thereafter, by force of historic circumstances, there was at the head of the European proletariat the organization of the Second International which has been and remains up to date the invaluable political weapon in the hands of the bourgeoisie.

38. By the end of 1918 and the beginning of 1919, the power of the government in Germany was practically in the hands of the working class, but the social democracy and the professional unions used all their traditional influence and all their apparatus for the purpose of returning the power into the hands of the bourgeoisie.

In Italy, the revolutionary movement of the proletariat during one and a half years has been marked by abundant force, and it was the petty bourgeois impotence of the socialist party, the treacherous policy of the parliamentary fractions, and the cowardly opportunism of the trade union organizations, that enabled the bourgeoisie to get into a position to reconstruct its apparatus, to mobilise its white guards, and to assume the offensive against the proletariat which has thus been temporarily discouraged by the bankruptcy of its leading organs.

The mighty strike movement in England has been frustrated once again during the last year, not so much by the government police forces as by the conservative trade unions whose apparatus has been most shamefully used to serve counter-revolutionary ends. Should the machinery of the English trade unions develop half the amount of energy in the interests of socialism which it has used in the interests of capitalism, the English proletariat would conquer power and would start the reconstruction of the economic organisation of the country with only an insignificant amount of sacrifice.

The same refers to a greater or less extent to all other capitalist countries.

39. It is absolutely beyond dispute that the open revolutionary struggle of the proletariat for power has been temporarily halted and its tempo delayed. But, in the very nature of the case, it was impossible to expect that the revolutionary offensive after the war, not having resulted in an immediate victory, should go on developing incessantly along an upward curve. The political evolution proceeds in cycles and has its ups and downs. The enemy does not remain passive but fights for his existence. If the offensive of the proletariat does not lead to direct victory, the bourgeoisie embraces the first opportunity for a counter-offensive. The proletariat in losing several of its positions, which were too easily won, usually experiences some confusion in its ranks. But it is undoubted mark of our time that the curve of the capitalist evolution proceeds through temporary rises constantly downwards, while the curve of revolution proceeds through some vacillations constantly upwards.

40. Should the rate of development prove to be more protracted and should the present industrial crisis be superseded in a number of countries by a period of prosperity, this would not in the long run signify the advent of the “organic” epoch. So long as capitalism exists periodic vacillations are inevitable. These vacillations are going to accompany capitalism in its agony, as was the case during its youth and maturity. The proletariat having been somewhat repulsed during the present crisis, by the onslaught of capitalism, is going to assume the offensive as soon as the situation begins to improve. The offensive character of the economic struggle of the proletariat which would inevitably be carried on under the slogan of revenge for all the deceptions of the war period, and for all the plunder and abuses of the crisis, will tend to turn into an open civil war just as the present defensive stage of the struggle does.

41. No matter whether the revolutionary movement in the near future is going to proceed at a rapid or protracted rate, the Communist Party must, in either case, be the Party of action. The party stands at the head of the struggling masses, it must firmly and definitely proclaim their war cries and must expose and sweep aside all equivocal slogans of the social-democrats which always tend towards compromise. Whatever the turns in the course of the struggle, the Communist Party always strives to fortify the contested positions, to get the masses used to active manoeuvring, to equip them with new methods calculated to lead to an open conflict with the enemy forces. Taking advantage of every breathing space offered in order to appreciate the experience of the preceding phase of the struggle; the Communist Party strives to deepen and widen the class conflicts, to combine them nationally and internationally by unity of goal, and of practical activity, in such a way as to remove the hindrances in the way of the proletariat and lead it on to the socialist revolution.