http://darrow.law.umn.edu/documents/Stalin...unist_party.pdfStalin’s Speeches on the American Communist Party [1929]
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Stalin’s Speeches on the
American Communist Party:
Delivered in the American Commission of the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the
Communist International, May 6, 1929 and In the Presidium of the Executive Committee of the
Communist International on the American Question, May 14th, 1929.
by I. Stalin
1
Published as a pamphlet by Central Committee, Communist Party USA, New York, n.d. [1931].
Preface.
The speeches of Comrade Stalin in the Ameri-
can Commission and at the meeting of the Presidium
of the Executive Committee of the Communist Inter-
national, published herewith, have not only historical
but also present political importance. At once they
show the line of the Sixth Congress in action and the
application to the Communist Party of the United
States of the Sixth Congress decisions on the fight
against the Right danger.
The Sixth Congress of the C.I. pointed out the
growth of the Right wing tendencies in the world
Communist movement, the growth caused by new
features in the world situation — further decay of capi-
talist stabilization, sharpening of inner and outer con-
tradictions of capitalism, sharpening of the class
struggle and the radicalization of the working class. In
the United States these new features of the world situ-
ation signified the deeper entanglement of American
capitalism in the general crisis of world capitalism, the
more rapid growth of class contradictions, and the
sharpening of the struggle of the American workers
against the united front of capitalists, their state appa-
ratus, and their reformist lackeys. In this situation Right
wing opportunists in the American Party developed
only reformist conceptions on all important questions
of the Communist movement. The most “famous” of
these opportunistic conceptions were Pepper and
Lovestone’s theory of American exceptionalism, their
opportunistic presentation of the question of the in-
ner contradictions of American capitalism, their un-
derestimation of the degree of the radicalization of the
workers, and finally, their covering of the Right dan-
ger under the theory that the only Right danger was
Trotskyism and that it was not necessary to fight against
opportunistic tendencies and theories openly formu-
lated by Right wingers who at that time determined
the political line of the American Party.
The speeches of Comrade Stalin show very
Stalin’s Speeches on the American Communist Party [1929]
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clearly how the fight against Right wingers in America
was part and parcel of the beneficent process of cleans-
ing the sections of the Communist International of
opportunist and wavering elements. Comrade Stalin
showed how this cleansing was a tactical conclusion
dictated by the whole analysis of the world situation.
There are many who think that nothing has changed in
the international situation of late, that everything has
remained as of old. This is not true, comrades. The fact of
the matter is that we have an accentuation of the class
struggle in all capitalist countries, a growing revolutionary
crisis in Europe, growing conditions of a new revolutionary
upward swing.... Soon the ground will be too hot for world
capitalism.
The duty of the Communist Party is at once to begin
preparatory work for the coming class struggles, to prepare
the working class and the exploited masses for new
revolutionary struggles.... But in order to carry out this task,
it is necessary at once, without the loss of a single moment,
for time does not wait, to set about cleaning the Communist
Parties of the Right and conciliationist elements, who
objectively represent the agency of social-democracy within
the ranks of the Communist Party. And we must set about
this matter not at the usual pace, but at an accelerated pace,
for, I repeat, time does not wait and we must not allow events
to catch us unawares.
The political roots of opportunist errors and
theories, which flourished in the American Party, are
clearly analyzed and exposed in Comrade Stalin’s
speeches. At the beginning of his first speech he says
that both groups in the American Party, that the ma-
jority and minority, “are guilty of the fundamental er-
ror of exaggerating the specific features of American
capitalism.” This general ground of all opportunist
mistakes in the American Party as shown by Comrade
Stalin a year ago has been proved by the subsequent
political evolution of the counter-revolutionary Love-
stone group, as well as by the newest manifestations of
opportunistic tendencies inside the American Party.
It would be sufficient to cite Lovestone’s con-
ception of the economic crisis in the United States as
a mere stock exchange crash and his continued pan-
egyrics, worthy of a backward shopkeeper, before the
power and strength of American capitalism, even while
it is in an orgy of economic crisis which shakes its very
foundation, in order to show the necessity for Stalin’s
analysis. It would be sufficient to point out the under-
estimation, which still exists in the Party, of the depth,
duration, and political significance of the present eco-
nomic crisis as well as the underestimation of the rad-
icalization of the workers, which results in our lagging
behind the masses in economic struggles, in the orga-
nization of the unemployed, and in the preparation
for May Day, in order to understand the present im-
portance of Stalin’s analysis of the Right tendencies in
the American Party, of the very clearly formulated dis-
tinction between specific particularities of American
capitalism which the Communist Party must take into
account in its work and the general features of capital-
ism, which are common to all countries, which are
the basis of all our activity and the very foundation of
internationalism. This distinction, which is the divid-
ing line between Communists and opportunists, must
be learned by every member of the Party and really
applied in all our everyday work.
The particular features of opportunism in the
American Party were the seal of unprincipledness and
sharply developed factionalism. Naturally the fight of
the Communist International against opportunism in
the American Party must have been directed against
this particular expression of American opportunism.
The political blows of Comrade Stalin’s speeches were
directed against unprincipled factionalism of both fac-
tions of the American Party — the former majority
and minority groups. One of the most revolting fea-
tures of this unprincipled factionalism was the specu-
lation on the divergencies in the Communist Party of
the Soviet Union, and in this respect Comrade Stalin
mercilessly unmasked pretensions of the former mi-
nority to be “Stalinites” in the United States as well as
Lovestone’s stock exchange speculation at the Sixth
Party Convention [
Chicago, March 1929
] on the Bu-
kharin question.
Blinded by factionalism, both factions not only
did not see or did not show to the Party the opportun-
ist mistakes of their “own” groups, but failed to find
an escape from the years long factional strife which
disarmed the American Party in the face of the class
enemies and compromised the Party in the eyes of the
American workers. Comrade Stalin shows how the
minority saw only one solution — to give the leader-
ship of the Party to the minority faction. And the
majority faction, headed by Lovestone, demanded only
the whitewashing of majority leaders of all opportu-
nistic mistakes and the strangling of the minority. The
solution given by the Comintern, as laid down in
Comrade Stalin’s speeches, was: a merciless fight against
Stalin’s Speeches on the American Communist Party [1929]
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the opportunistic mistakes of both groups, decisive
organizational measures to stop once for all the fac-
tional fight in the American Party, and the unification
of the Party, not on the platform of the majority or of
the minority, but on the basis of the CI line.
Perhaps the most striking part of Comrade
Stalin’s speeches is his analysis of factionalism in a
Communist Party. With clear and simple words, with
formulations sharp as a razor, Comrade Stalin opens
this “running sore” of factionalism in a Communist
Party and, in a way understandable to every worker,
shows the necessity of putting an end to the crime of
factionalism.
Many political prognoses made by Comrade Sta-
lin in May a year ago now appear as fulfilled predic-
tions. His analysis of the crisis of world capitalism,
which develops with quick tempo and which must
involve American capitalism, and his statement that
the 3,000,000 of unemployed were but the first swal-
lows of the crisis maturing in America; all these prog-
noses were not mere guesses, but inevitable conclu-
sions drawn from a Marxian analysis of the whole world
situation.
With the same historical accuracy, Comrade
Stalin’s prognosis of the future fate of the Lovestone
group has been fulfilled. Answering Lovestone’s pre-
tensions that he was defending his opportunistic con-
ceptions and factional activities “in the name of 99
percent of the American Communist Party,” Comrade
Stalin pointed out that Lovestone “is indisputably an
adroit and talented factional wirepuller” and had a
majority in the American Communist Party, mainly
because the membership regarded the leaders of the
majority “as the determined supporters of the Com-
munist International.”
To the gloomy predictions of Lovestone and
Gitlow that the Comintern Address will destroy the
American Party, Comrade Stalin answered:
“No, comrades, the American Communist Party
will not perish. It will live and flourish to the dismay
of the enemies of the working class. Only one small
factional group will perish if it continues to be stub-
born, if it does not submit to the will of the Com-
intern, if it continues to adhere to its errors.”
These words could be written upon the political
grave, or better said, on the Brandlerite political sewer
in which now rests Lovestone, Gitlow & Co.
Still timely are the tasks of the American Com-
munist movement laid down by Comrade Stalin in
his speeches: bolshevization of the American Party,
forging of real revolutionary cadres and of real revolu-
tionary leaders of the proletariat, strengthening of the
fight against reformism and social-democracy, and pre-
paring the working class and the exploited masses for
the new revolutionary fights.
Comrade Stalin pointed out that the importance
of the Comintern Address consisted precisely in that
it helps the American Party “to put an end to unprin-
cipled factionalism, create unity in the Party, and finally
enter on the broad road of mass political work.” The
American Communist Party after a year of work and
struggle can now say that this general task has been
entirely accomplished. The Party has mercilessly elimi-
nated factionalism and is now united on the line of
the Comintern in the fight against all and every op-
portunist tendency and is already on the road to mass
political activity. The organizational successes of the
Party, and the tremendous growth of the Party’s po-
litical influence among the American workers are re-
sults of the Marxist-Leninist help of the Communist
International.
The renegades of Communism, from Lovestone’s
or Cannon’s camp, may sneer at Stalin’s words about
the errors and mistakes of the Party which were brought
forward in Stalin’s speeches. The Trotskyites’
Militant
has already come out with a lengthy and “deep” article
declaring that the publication of Comrade Stalin’s
speeches “obviously has some very special — some may
say, occult meaning,” is some machination behind the
scenes” and a new informal intrigue against some
American comrades, and in particular “a first step to-
ward overthrowing Foster.” These political gossipers
are unable to see in any stage of Party bolshevization
anything but personal intrigue. Because Comrade Fos-
ter, one of the present most authoritative leaders of
the united American Party, was mentioned in Stalin’s
speech as at that time the leader of the former minor-
ity group in connection with errors and factionalism
of the former minority, the counter-revolutionary slan-
derers of the
Militant
hasten to build upon this the
bedroom story of new “intrigues” in the Communist
Party. To them could be very well applied the angry
words of Karl Marx, who, in his “A Criticism of the
Hegelian Philosophy of Right,” branded the represen-
Stalin’s Speeches on the American Communist Party [1929]
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tatives of the German historical-judicial school: “To
them history only shows itself ‘a posteriori’ like the
God of Israel to Moses.” Similar interpretation of his-
tory is, however, a particular feature of the Trotsky-
ites. Their Pope, their heir of Marx and Lenin on Earth
— Trotsky, in his recent book fully developed this con-
ception of the whole history of the Russian revolu-
tionary movement, the history of two Russian revolu-
tions, as a dim reflection of his own brilliant personal
genius; and the whole history of the development of
the Russian Party after the defeat of Trotskyism as the
result of an infernal intrigue, “conspiracy of epigones.”
Strong with bolshevik self-criticism, boldly ex-
posing, criticizing, and correcting the past and present
errors, the American party will follow the path of bol-
shevization enlightened by Stalin’s speeches, and will
be worthy of Stalin’s definition of our Party as “one of
the few Communist Parties in the world upon which
history has laid tasks of a decisive character from the
point of view of the world revolutionary movement.”
Stalin’s Speeches on the American Communist Party [1929]
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Comrades, since quite a few speeches have been
delivered here and the political position of both groups
in the Communist Party of the United States of
America has been sufficiently clarified, I do not in-
tend to speak at great length. I shall not deal with the
political position of the leaders of the majority and
the minority. I shall not do so since it has become evi-
dent during the course of the discussion that both
groups are guilty of the fundamental error of exagger-
ating the specific features of American capitalism. You
know that this exaggeration lies at the root of every
opportunist error committed both by the majority and
the minority group. It would be wrong to ignore the
specific peculiarities of American capitalism. The Com-
munist Party in its work must take them into account.
But it would be still more wrong to base the activities
of the Communist Party on these specific features, since
the foundation of the activities of every Communist
Party, including the American Communist Party, on
which it must base itself, must be the general features
of capitalism, which are the same for all countries, and
not its specific features in any given country. It is on
this that the internationalism of the Communist Party
is founded. Specific features are only supplementary
to the general features. The error of both groups is
that they exaggerate the significance of the specific fea-
tures of American capitalism and thereby overlook the
basic features of American capitalism which are char-
acteristic of world capitalism as a whole. Therefore,
when the leaders of the majority and the minority ac-
cuse each other of elements of a Right deviation, it is
obviously not without some measure of truth. It can-
not be denied that American conditions form a me-
dium in which it is easy for the American Communist
Party to be led astray and to exaggerate the strength
and stability of American capitalism. These conditions
lead our comrades from America, both the majority
and the minority, into errors of the type of the Right
deviation. Owing to these conditions, at times one
section, at others, the other section, fails to realize the
full extent of reformism in America, underestimates
the leftward swing of the working class, and, in gen-
eral, is inclined to regard American capitalism as some-
thing apart from and above world capitalism. That is
the basis for the unsteadiness of both sections of the
American Communist Party in matters of principle.
Having made these general observations, let us
now pass to practical political questions.
What are the main defects in the practice of the
leaders of the majority and the minority?
Firstly, that in their day-to-day work they, and
particularly the leaders of the majority, are guided by
motives of unprincipled factionalism and place the
interests of their faction higher than the interests of
the Party.
Secondly, that both groups, and particularly the
majority, are so infected with the disease of factional-
ism that they base their relations with the Comintern,
not on the principle of confidence, but on a policy of
rotten diplomacy, a policy of diplomatic intrigue.
Let us take a few examples. I will mention such
a simple fact as the speculations made by the leaders
both of the majority and the minority regarding the
differences within the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union. You know that both groups of the American
Communist Party, competing with each other and
chasing after each other like horses in a race, are fever-
ishly speculating on existing and non-existing differ-
ences within the CPSU. Why do they do that? Do the
interests of the Communist Party of America demand
it? No, of course not. They do it in order to gain some
advantage for their own particular faction and to cause
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