Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Report of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (1921).pdf/6

 Committee which would deal with all the current daily affairs and organise the political leadership on a really international scale. We must discuss the activities of the Executive Committee with perfect frankness. These activities have been very faulty. Mistakes have been made, and we are looking forward with interest to the discussions and the proposals to be made by the various parties.

In the matter of organisation we can say right at the start that our work was imperfect, at times even bad. Nevertheless, comrades, I believe we may state with some degree of satisfaction that in spite of everything we had, during this year, a really international leadership for the first time in the history of the modern labour movement.

As you probably recall, the International Socialist Bureau of the Second International was neither a leading body politically nor an institution attending to practical, daily affairs. It used to meet once every three months, mostly on dress parade, as it were. The leadership of the Communist International during the first two years was not yet entirely international, to be sure, and only during the past year—we can say this with satisfaction—did we succeed in laying the foundations for an institution, composed of representatives of at least ten or twelve parties, and which has, at any rate, attempted to conduct the Communist labour movement along international lines also with regard to its leadership. I believe, comrades, that this is of great advantage for the International labour movement. And if we all agree that our International shall continue to develop in the same direction, if we are all determined to spare no pains and co-operate with all our power, we shall soon possess a real and efficient International leadership.

We called this Congress together somewhat earlier than required by our statutes. We were led to do so by the consciousness of the great responsi-