Clara Zetkin: Contribution in the Debate on Trotsky's speech

(Third Session , 24 June 1921)

[My own translation from the Minutes of the III. World Congress of the Communist International, Protokoll des III. Weltkongresses der Kommunistischen Internationale, Moskau 22. Juni bis 12. Juli 1921. Hamburg 1921, Third Session, pp. 117-120. Corrections by English native speakers would be extremely welcome]

Comrades! There has been criticism of Comrade Trotsky's speech and theses that they to a certain extent anticipate our discussion on tactics. I can not share this criticism. My view is that we can be grateful to comrade Trotsky for having given the foundations for our tactical discussion in a very thorough, comprehensive and objective manner and for having prepared this discussion in the first place. And he did so as a true disciple of Marx, by descending into the depths of all social events, all social struggles.

I do not want to go into the details of his presentation, but only to emphasise sharply what seem to be its basic features and also the basic features of the theses. I cannot help feeling that both Comrade Trotsky's presentation and the theses are far too predominantly considered in the light of the dispute over tactics, rather than according to their purely objective scientific meaning and tendency.

What is this tendency? Comrade Trotsky has pointed out and clarified all the different tendencies within the present capitalist economy, he has demonstrated the different, the essentially different character which exists between the earlier crises of capitalism and the present crisis. And all his explanations have culminated in the conclusion, which in my opinion is convincing, that no matter whether the development goes this way or another, the capitalist economy is and remains doomed. It comes up against the barriers beyond which, by its very nature, it cannot go. It must be smashed, it must be replaced by communism. Comrade Trotsky has emphasised the role of the state power for this purpose with sufficient sharpness in relation to the attempts of capitalist society to rebuild capitalism despite its present decay. It is precisely a phenomenon which is so prominent internationally, and no one can escape its impression, that the capitalists use and abuse state power to the greatest extent in order to rebuild the capitalist economy. I cannot readily agree with comrade Thalheimer's view that probably the possibility of a Franco-German conflict is closer than that of an Anglo-American conflict. I can see that the possibility of such a conflict does exist, but on the other hand I can also see contrary tendencies at work to bring about an understanding in the conflict of the French and German exploiting cliques at the expense of the proletariat. At the moment those tendencies seem to have gained the upper hand. My view is that precisely such an understanding between the German and French bourgeoisie is not only at the expense of the German proletariat, but also has an international effect at the expense of the French proletariat, so that it harbours much greater dangers than a rapid acute crisis. That it is precisely the danger of such an understanding which makes the most difficult demands on the German proletariat, the French proletariat, the world proletariat, for increased greater insight, but also for increased activity and fighting capacity.

Comrade Trotsky has, in my opinion, very correctly emphasised that we must not rely on an automatic development of the capitalist economy which inevitably leads to its downfall. No, the social factor, the will of the fighting proletariat must intervene decisively, acceleratingly in the course of historical development. But Comrade Trotsky has, in my opinion, also pointed out that it is precisely on this economic basis that the revolutionary activity of the Communist parties as leaders of the proletariat must proceed, that it would therefore be erroneous, on the one hand, to prepare ourselves for a rapid escalation into an acute crisis which, as it were, discharges itself with a single blow of thunderstorm, that we must therefore not orientate ourselves unilaterally, and that the growing enslavement and pauperisation of the proletariat would in itself be an extraordinarily decisive factor. If pauperisation and enslavement were to play this role, then we should already have had the decisive struggle of the proletarian masses during the war. There, too, it was hoped that with the increasing pauperisation of the proletariat, the explosion against the world imperialist predatory war would have to break through. And it has not come.

And what do we see in Germany in the face of the colossal unemployment? Despite all the struggle for the soul of the unemployed, in order to make them the vanguard of the revolutionary struggle, we have so far had the experience that they have not entered the struggle to the extent expected.

I do not want to talk further about this question, because I think it belongs to the question of tactics. Besides, we have a very great proof that we must not expect too much from the increase of impoverishment and enslavement alone. Think of the appalling situation of the proletariat in Austria. Where is the revolutionary indignation and, above all, the revolutionary will to action of the broadest masses who suffer from this misery? I am the last to close my mind to the realisation that under certain conditions the unemployed can indeed play a quite outstanding role in the struggle, that we must fully appreciate their importance and also make active use of it. But it is just as necessary, comrades, that we reckon with the fact that, as comrade Trotsky said, there may still be temporary periods of economic improvement. And then it is necessary for us not to be discouraged, not to fear as if the consolidation of capitalism were imminent, but even then to hold fast to our firm conviction that it is only a bogus blossoming of capitalism, and that in that period it is important to make the whole energy, the whole will, the whole strength of the Communist parties effective, revolutionary. I heard from Comrade Trotsky's speech the sharpest rejection of any passivity on the part of the Communist Party and the proletarian masses. Conversely. No matter which way the development goes, for the proletariat, for the Communist Party, there is only one way under all circumstances: the way straight ahead to the conquest of political power, to the establishment of the proletarian dictatorship, increased to the highest activity in all fields, through a readiness to struggle in every hour and under all circumstances. (Loud approval and applause.)