Page:Grigory Zinoviev - Report of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (1921).pdf/71

 proval.) We have here about a thousand delegates; let the comrades seclude themselves by groups in different rooms and read the speech of Smeral with close attention. I am convinced that every one of the comrades would come to the conclusion that the Smeral speech is a semi-Centrist one. In this speech we find the same tone, the same method, the same insincerity as in Serati's speech a year ago, And this speech was delivered at a moment when the Party had already declared its readiness to join the Third International. The Party should have protested immediately against Smeral's speech. Now we have to take determined action against it. The situation at the time was quite different.

The resolution proposed by the Czecho-Slovaks repeats two or three times that they accept the 21 points and will carry them out. Why so many repeated assurances where it would be better to proceed at last to the carrying out of these conditions.

What's the use of the willingness to carry out the 21 conditions when the leaders of the party carry on a press campaign against them? How can they claim to be carrying out the 21 conditions, when Smeral speaks against the formation of the Communist Party, when many of them speak against joining, and against the 21 conditions, when Smeral even now begins to talk of collaboration and co-operation with other Parties, finding the plausible excuse that the party is so big that we could definitely exercise a practical influence upon the present government? He who is familiar with the history of Socialism until the year 1921 knows quite well the significance of these words in the mouth of so shrewd a diplomat as Smeral. What happened during the December strike? Everyone who has come from Czecho-Slovakia will confirm the fact that if there were any that showed childish helplessness in face of the events, it were some of the leaders. The question as to whether we ought to accept the Party, we must