Page:The Lessons of the German Events (1924).djvu/62

 working class masses for the coming struggles. The differences still remaining in the party must be removed in the process of party organisation and by avoiding the formation of factions; the need of the hour is to obtain the solid co-operation of all party comrades as quickly as possible. It is with this object in view that we voted in favour of the total results of the consultation.

We have voted for the political theses mainly because they confirm fundamentally the tactics hitherto pursued by Comintern and which the so-called Left in Germany wished definitely to break with. We were able all the more easily to vote for them because they were supplemented by correct theses on organisation and on the trade unions which will furnish a decisive reply to certain very important practical questions. Nevertheless, we are aware that the political theses are not clear of certain vaguenesses, and that, in particular, they have quite falsely apportioned responsibility for the errors which have been committed. A part of the responsibility for the October events must fall upon the Executive Committee, which judged the situation too optimistically, and gave the German comrades one-sided directions, without providing for a line of retreat.

For us there can be no doubt that the so-called Right (Clara Zetkin, Brandler, Thalheimer, Walcher, Pieck, &c.), whose errors and omissions have been so fully criticised in the theses, and to some extent with justice, are the oldest, best-tried, and most experienced soldiers in the party. Against this Old Guard of the Party the Left has been for some time carrying on a persistent persecution of leaders, which was in direct contradiction to the spirit of Bolshevism, and was always demagogic and anarchistic. We believe that to discredit this group in the eyes of the German proletariat would be a heavy blow to the German Communist Party. The axiom of Lenin should be remembered by the German Communist Party:

"No revolutionary movement can be a permanent one unless it has a stable organisation of leaders which is able to maintain cohesion when necessary. The broader the masses who are brought into the struggle and who form the basis of the movement, the more urgent becomes the necessity for such an organisation and the more solid must it be."

Therefore, it was the duty of the Executive, when criticising the errors committed, also to condemn the attack upon the leaders, which has broken out with redoubled vigour since the October events, and which is charging the leaders who ordered the retreat with treachery. The inevitability of the retreat in the given situation was admitted by the Chairman of the Executive Com-