Page:Resolutions and Theses of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International (1922).djvu/71

 For the furtherance of these theses, the Fourth Congress of the Comintern points out especially:—

(1) The imperative necessity for all the Communist Parties carrying out the instruction that all the members of the Party shall be members of the consumers' co-operatives and take an active part in their work. In every co-operative organisation the Communist members should organise openly or secretly—a Communist nucleus. These nuclei should be united into district organisations, which, in their turn, should be organised into a national organisation, headed by a special co-operative section controlled by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the country. The entire work of the Communists in the co-operatives should be carried through on the basis of the most rigid discipline under the control of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The task of these nuclei consists in establishing the closest connection with the broad masses of the working-class co-operators, in criticising not only the principles, but also the practice of the old co-operatives and in organising the discontented masses in order to create, in the co-operatives, a united front against capitalism and the capitalist State. All the national organisations of the Communist co-operators should be closely allied with the Comintern through its co-operative section.

The Communist co-operatives should under no circumstances strive to separate the revolutionary or the opposition elements from the co-operatives or to split them, because such tactics would only lead to the undermining of power of the co-operatives and to the weakening of the contact of the revolutionary co-operators with the broad masses of the working class. For identical reasons we should not endeavour to separate the national co-operative unions from the International Co-operative Union. On the contrary, Communists should demand the admission into this Union of all the national unions in which the Communists constitute a majority or a strong minority, and which do not as yet belong to the International Co-operative Union.

(2) The Central Committees of the Communist Parties as well as the Communist co-operators should initiate an energetic campaign against the co-operative illusions, that the co-operatives are able, by themselves, to achieve the socialist order by means of a gradual transition into socialism without the capture of political power by the proletariat, or that by employing the old methods, they will achieve a considerable improvement in the conditions of the working class. A similarly energetic campaign should be carried on against the principle of the political neutrality of the co-operatives. This so-called neutrality is indeed only a screen for open or secret support of the interests of the bourgeoisie and its hangers-on. This campaign should be carried on, not only in the form of a theoretical propaganda, but also by attracting the co-operatives to the economic and political struggle now being con-