Page:Resolutions and Theses of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International (1922).djvu/30



On the Report of Comrade Zinoviev on the Further Tactics of the Communist International.

I. Endorsement of the Resolutions of the Third Congress.

The Fourth World Congress of the Communist International emphatically states that the following resolutions of the Third World Congress have been completely confirmed through the experiences and the development of the working class movement in the period between the Third and Fourth Conresses:—

(1) Resolution on the World Economic Crisis and the tasks of the Communist International; and

(2) Resolution on the tactics of the Communist International.

'''II. The Decline of Capitalism.'''

The Third World Congress, after an investigation of the world economic situation, could confidently assert that capitalism, after the fulfilment of its mission of developing the forces of production, now stands completely in opposition, not merely to the necessities of the present historical development, but even to the satisfaction of the most elementary human requirements. These fundamental contradictions of the capitalist system were clearly reflected in the recent imperialistic war, and were sharpened thereby, as the fabric of production and distribution received a shattering blow. Obsolete capitalism has now reached that stage when its unbridled powers of destruction cripple and destroy the economic accomplishments which have been achieved by a proletariat in a condition of capitalist serfdom.

The general aspect of the decay of capitalist economy shows no modification through the inevitable fluctuations which are a feature of the capitalist system, as much during its growth as during its decline. The efforts of bourgeois and social-democratic economists—who saw, in the improvement of the economic situation in the second half of 1921 in the United States, Japan and England, and also to some extent in France, a restoration of capitalist equilibrium—were founded partly on the deliberate misrepresentation of facts and partly on the short-sightedness of these lackeys of capitalism. The Third Congress, which was held before the present revival of industry, foresaw that this revival must inevitably take place in the comparatively near future, and characterised it then distinctly, as a superficial back wave in the advancing disintegration of capitalism. One can already clearly see that as the present revival of industry is by no means capable of restoring capitalist stability, nor even of repairing the grave damage wrought by the war, the next