The Sixth Congress of the Communist International was held in
Moscow from July 17 to September 1, 1928. The Congress was attended by 515 delegates from 65 organizations (including 50 Communist Parties) from 57 countries. Adopting the theory of the "
Third Period", Congress proclaimed
social democracy to be "
social fascism."
General assessment of the political environment
The Congress noted the approach of a new ("third") period in the revolutionary development of the world after the
October Revolution - a period of a sharp exacerbation of all the contradictions of
capitalism, characterized by an
impending global economic crisis, an increase in
class struggle
Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor.
The forms ...
and a new upsurge of the
liberation movement in
colonial
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 a ...
and
dependent countries. In this regard, the Congress approved the tactics outlined by the 9th plenum of the
ECCI
The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI (Russian acronym ИККИ), was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body. The ECCI was established by the Foundin ...
(February 1928), expressed by the formula "class against class".
Social fascism thesis
The Congress developed the strategic directive adopted by the
Fifth Congress (1924), according to which, in connection with the left turn of the masses in the capitalist countries, two equally hostile political forces confront the communists there: openly reactionary (
fascism) and democratic reformist (
social democracy). In accordance with this, the possibility of an alliance of communists with the social democratic parties in joint political actions and in pre-election blocs was rejected. The danger of the activities of the leaders of the "left wing" of social democracy was especially emphasized.
The thesis of "
social fascism" was generally supported by the congress, only a small part of the delegates opposed it, in particular, the
Italian delegation headed by
Palmiro Togliatti.
Although the thesis was not included in the program of the Comintern adopted by the Congress, the provisions that social democracy often plays a fascist role in the most critical moments for capitalism, its ideology in many points being in contact with the fascist, were reflected in a number of documents of the congress.
Program and Charter
The Congress adopted the Program and Statutes of the Communist International, which stated that this organization was a "united world communist party."
The main work on the draft of the new Program was carried out by
Nikolai Bukharin
Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (russian: Никола́й Ива́нович Буха́рин) ( – 15 March 1938) was a Bolshevik revolutionary, Soviet politician, Marxist philosopher and economist and prolific author on revolutionary theory. ...
, on behalf of the
Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (, abbreviated: ), or Politburo ( rus, Политбюро, p=pəlʲɪtbʲʊˈro) was the highest policy-making authority within the Communist Party of the ...
. After discussing it in the Politburo and subsequent revision, the draft was submitted to the ECCI and published on May 25 for discussion. In the course of preparation
Joseph Stalin made a number of significant amendments to the text of the Program, making it more "leftist". The Program consolidated the rigid centralization of the leadership of the communist parties and the demand for "international communist discipline", which was to be expressed "in the unconditional implementation by all communists of the decisions of the governing bodies of the Communist International." The Congress' support for Stalin's line strengthened his line in the struggle against
"right-wing" tendencies, in particular against Bukharin.
According to the Charter, in each country there could be only one Communist Party, called a section of the Comintern. The charter presupposed the obligation of strict international party discipline and the urgent implementation of the resolutions of the Comintern. The sections had the right to appeal against the decisions of the ECCI at the World Congress, but until the congress canceled the decisions of the sections, they were not relieved of the obligation to fulfill them. It was decided to expand the Executive Committee of the Comintern so that it included representatives of all sections united in the Comintern as members or candidates. According to the Charter, the rights of the delegates of the ECCI in certain sections of the Comintern were expanded.
References
External links
VI Конгресс Коминтерна. Стенографический отчет. (М.-Л.: Госиздат, 1929){{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224035212/http://publ.lib.ru/ARCHIVES/K/Kommunisticheskiy_Internacional/_Komintern.html#1061 , date=2013-02-24
1928 conferences
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