To determine more especially the relation of the Communist International to the revolutionary movements of the countries dominated by capitalistic imperialism; for instance, India and China, etc., is one of the most important questions before the Second Congress of the Third International. The history of the World Revolution has come to a point when a proper understanding of this relation is indispensable. The great European War and its results have shown clearly that the masses of non-European subjected countries are inseparably connected with the proletarian movement in Europe, as a consequence of centralised World Capitalism (for instance, the sending of colonial troops and huge armies of workers to the battle fronts during the war, etc.).

One of the main sources from which European Capitalism draws its chief strength is to be found in the colonial possessions and dependencies.

Without the control of the extensive markets and vast fields of exploitation in the colonies, the capitalist powers of Europe cannot maintain their existence even for a short time. England, the stronghold of imperialism, has been suffering from over-production since more than a century ago. But for the extensive colonial possessions acquired for the sale of her surplus products and a source of raw materials for her ever growing industries, the capitalist structure of England would have crushed under its own weight long ago. By enslaving the hundreds of millions of inhabitants of Asia and Africa, English Imperialism succeeds so far in keeping the British proletariat under the domination of the bourgeoisie.

Super profit gained in the colonies is the mainstay of modern capitalism, and so long as the latter is not deprived of this source of super-profit, it will not be easy for the European working class to overthrow the capitalist order. Thanks to the possibility of the
extensive and intensive exploitation of the human labour and natural resources in the colonies, the capitalist nations of Europe are trying, not without success, to recuperate from their present bankruptcy. By exploiting the masses in the colonies, European Imperialism will be in a position to give concession after concession to the Labour aristocracy at home. Whilst, on the one hand, European Imperialism seeks to lower the standard of living of the home proletariat by bringing into competition the productions of the lower paid workers in subjected countries, on the other hand it will not hesitate to go to the extent of sacrificing the entire surplus value in the home country, so long as it continues to gain its huge super-profits in the colonies.

The breaking up of the colonial empire, together with the proletarian revolution in the home country, will overthrow the capitalist system in Europe. Consequently, the Communist International must widen the sphere of its activity. It must establish relations with those revolutionary forces that are working for the overthrow of imperialism in the countries subjected politically and economically. These two forces must he coordinated if the final success of the World Revolution is to be guaranteed.

The Communist International is the concentrated will of the world revolutionary proletariat. Its mission is to organise the working class of the whole world for the overthrow of the capitalistic order and the establishment of Communism. The Third International is a fighting body which must assume the task of combining the revolutionary forces of all the countries of the world.

Dominated as it was by a group of politicians, permeated with bourgeois culture, the Second International failed to appreciate the importance of the colonial question. For them the world did not exist outside of Europe. They could not see the necessity of co-ordinating the revolutionary movements in Europe with those in the non-European countries. Instead of giving moral and material help to the revolutionary movements in the colonies, the members of the Second International themselves became imperialists.

Foreign imperialism, imposed on the Eastern peoples, prevented them from developing socially and economically side by side with their fellows in Europe and America. Owing to the imperialist policy of preventing industrial development in the colonies, a proletarian class, in the strict sense of the word, could not come into existence there until recently. The ingenious craft industries were destroyed to make room for the products of the centralised industries in the imperialistic countries – consequently the majority of the population was driven to the land to produce cereals, fodder, and raw materials for export to foreign lands. On the other hand, there followed a rapid concentration of land in the hands of big landowners, of financial capitalists and the State, thus creating a huge landless peasantry. The great bulk of the population was kept in a state of illiteracy. As the result of this policy the spirit of revolt, latent in every subject people, found its expression only through the small educated middle class.

Foreign domination has obstructed the free development of the social forces; therefore its overthrow is the first step towards a revolution in the colonies. So to help overthrow the foreign rule in the colonies is not to endorse the nationalist aspirations of the native bourgeoisie, but to open the way to the smothered proletariat there.

There are to be found in the dependent countries two distinct movements, which every day grow farther apart from each other. One is the bourgeois democratic national movement, with the programme of political independence under the bourgeois order, and the other is the mass action of the ignorant and poor peasants and workers for their liberation from all sorts of exploitation. The former endeavour to control the latter, and often succeed to a certain extent, but the Communist International and the parties affected must struggle against such control and help to develop class consciousness in the working masses of the colonies. For the overthrow of foreign capitalism, the first step towards revolution in the colonies, the cooperation of the bourgeois nationalist revolutionary elements is useful.

But the foremost and necessary task is the formation of Communist Parties which will organise the peasants and workers and lead them to the Revolution and to the establishment of Soviet Republics. Thus the masses of the backward countries may reach Communism, not through capitalistic development, but led by the class conscious proletariat of the advanced capitalist countries.

The real strength of the liberation movement in the colonies is no longer confined to the narrow circle of the bourgeois democratic nationalists. In most of the colonies there already exist organised revolutionary parties which strive to be in close relation with the working masses. The relation of the Communist International with the revolutionary movement in the colonies should be realised through the medium of these parties or groups, because they are the vanguard of the working class in their respective countries. They are not very large today, but they reflect the aspirations of the masses, and the latter will follow them to the Revolution. The Communist Parties of the different imperialist countries must work in conjunction with these proletarian parties of the colonies, and through them give moral and material support to the revolutionary movements in general.

The Revolution in the colonies is not going to be a Communist Revolution in its first stages. But if from the outset the leadership is in the hands of a Communist vanguard, the revolutionary masses will not he led astray, but go ahead through the successive periods of development of revolutionary experience. Indeed it would be extremely erroneous in many of the Oriental countries to try to solve the agrarian problem according to pure Communist principles. In its first stages the Revolution in the colonies must be carried on with a programme which will include many petty bourgeois reform clauses, such as division of land, etc. But from this it does not follow at all that the leadership of the Revolution will have to be surrendered to the bourgeois democrats. On the contrary, the proletarian parties must carry on vigorous and systematic, propaganda of the Soviet idea, and organise peasants’ and workers’ Soviets as soon as possible. These Soviets will work in cooperation with the Soviet Republics in the advanced capitalistic countries for the ultimate overthrow of the capitalist order throughout the world.