Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Report of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (1921).pdf/38

 erous leaders became the greatest snare to the movement. This is the lesson that the Italian proletariat learned, and we shall all remember the proverb—"Not all is gold that glitters." Not all is Communist gold which appears as such.

Comrades! We must henceforth be less trustful, because we have had too many examples of treason like that of Serati. We must test every party ten times before we accord it our full confidence. And the true Communist will not object to this. This example shows us that the enemy is on the Right side and not elsewhere. (Approval.) In Italy we had an example where we made an attempt to put our Left friends on the right tracts. I have already quoted Bordiga. He stands at the head of the party in Italy. He disbanded his faction and dropped all personal and factional aims. He is a soldier of the Proletarian Revolution. Such elements we need, and with the Left-wingers we must deal as with friends, naturally, to a certain limit. In the case of the Communist Labour Party of Germany this limit has been overstepped. But the real enemy comes from the Right, not the Left. He is hiding, taking advantage of our weaknesses, and emerging from his hole at the opportune moment to stab us in the back.

Mr. Serati said: "We stand now, 'devant léglise,' outside the gates of the Vatican. We are Christian comrades, we shall wait till the door opens for us to come in." This is nicely said. But in reality he is not standing at the gates of our Communist Temple. He is lying with his nose stuck in the rubbish pile of the bourgeois ideology. (Loud approval and applause.) We have handled the Italian question resolutely. Of course we were fully aware of the responsibility which we assumed and we now confidently expect the decision of the congress upon the question whether we acted rightly when we closed the door before their nose and told them; Here is Communism,