10.08.1995

Russia calls

From The Communist, paper of the Communist Party of Great Britain, August 12 1920

SOVIET Russia knows too well the historical basis of communism to imagine that she can impose it upon the Polish workers without their previous disillusionment in capitalist government. Her armistice terms come as we write. They show again that she is willing to leave the workers themselves to learn the lesson of revolution, and that all she requires is peace - with guarantees: demobilisation of the Polish armies, disarmament - unless the workers themselves require the arms.

... Russia has sent out a call to workers, but her call has been heard beyond the boundaries of Poland ... The great drive of the communists and socialists, especially through the Hands Off Russia committees, ... are bearing their fruit at last. British labour has risen as one man to the task. The action of the Labour Party executive on the second day of the present crisis ... are symptoms in their way as eloquent as the vast flood of rank and file protests and threats reported from all over the country. The constitution of a ‘Council of Action’ to direct the general strike against the blockade and the war is an inevitable step if the workers wish to win this fight; and the Party itself led the way in its manifesto of Saturday. But the constitution of a Council - though it is a step on the road to the dictatorship of the proletariat - is not sufficient at the present moment. The council must have its minimum programme. Such a programme is contained in the five points of the Party; and that programme must be brought home to and adopted by the workers in the localities.

Here again is the role of the Communist Party. If all its members - in union branches, on strike or vigilance committees, in borough councils, anywhere and everywhere - act as one man to carry out the instructions of the Party and thus provide coherence and unison to the movement of revolt up and down the country as well as at the centre; if at the coming National Labour Congress all communist delegates attending it meet an hour or two before and hammer out a common line of action; then the Party will be playing its true part as the vanguard of the proletariat.

Russia’s call is not only to save her: it is to begin the work of emancipation everywhere. We can answer that call. In the first fortnight of its existence our young Communist Party, faced with a semi-revolutionary situation, can help to save Russia and receive its first instruction in the making of the social revolution.