Dimitrov Revisited

by Vic Williams

The Communist Manifesto looks forward to socialism, to the working 
class forces involved and the final aim. It does not see the struggle as 
one culminating act, but a continuing struggle.

The Manifesto sees the first step in the revolution as the conquest 
of power "to raise the proletariat to the position of the ruling class, to 
win the battle of democracy." 

"The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all 
capital from the bourgeoisie ..."

The aim is a socialist government but the path to it is a long and 
difficult one, and as the revolutionary struggles developed in different 
countries, the Marxist parties looked for allies to the working class among 
different classes and forces.

Lenin saw the value and the necessity of working with the forces of the 
bourgeois democratic revolution and the peasantry against the Czarist 
autocracy. The newly formed Communist Parties (in the 1920s) had to work 
out new steps in the class struggle, to look for allies among the peasantry 
and petty bourgeoisie and set out to make them part of a revolutionary 
movement. 

But it was in the period of the unprecedented economic and political crises 
of the 1930s, with the development of fascism and preparations for new 
imperialist wars, that the international Communist parties were forced to 
work out new and more specific forms of struggle.

Wilhelm Pieck, the German Communist Party leader, speaking at the Seventh 
World Congress of the Communist International held in 1935, outlined some 
of their problems and difficulties.

In the main, the Communist parties were comparatively young, inexperienced, 
short in numbers and insufficiently influential among the workers and the 
people. They did not have much influence on the spontaneous struggles of 
the trade unions and the unemployed.

The slogan "class against class" strengthened the Communist Parties, but 
when also interpreted as "class struggle" or "class collaboration with the 
bourgeoisie" and used to condemn the Social Democrats and the unions they 
controlled, it alienated them from possible allies.

The Red International of labour unions organised by Communist Parties 
played a role in attacking reformist trade union bureaucracy, but went too 
far in instructions to exclude Social Democrats and union leaders from 
committees of action on the grounds they were strikebreakers.

The French Communist Party was one of the first to achieve a united front 
with Social Democrats. When fascist bands marched on the streets of Paris 
in 1934, the Communist Party called the workers to oppose fascism with a 
political demonstration and a political general strike four days later. 
This massive movement of communist and social democratic workers forced the 
French Socialist Party leaders to consent to a united front with the 
Communist Party and laid the basis for united anti-fascist actions by the 
whole organised labour movement. 

George Dimitrov's historic speech at the Seventh Congress of the Communist 
International summed up the experiences and discussion of the Communist 
Parties on how to achieve a united front against war and fascism. He 
described fascism in power as "the open terrorist dictatorship of the most 
reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance 
capital."

That definition showed the very wide possibilities of finding opposition to 
fascism.

Dimitrov saw the starting point and main content of the united front as the 
defence of the immediate economic and political interests of the working 
class. The calls to action and forms of struggle should fit in with the 
capabilities of the people and the organisations concerned. Such joint 
actions must aim to shift the burden of the crises onto the shoulders of 
the ruling class. Actions were vital for the defence of the rights of 
workers and for the protection of democratic liberties.

Dimitrov said Communists should seek united actions on demands put forward 
by Social Democrats and develop mass actions with them locally as a means 
of building towards greater united action, moving from short term to long 
term agreements, even to the forming of a United Front government. But 
there was no fixed pattern.

He examined the conditions under which such a government could come to 
power. 

"First, the state apparatus of the bourgeoisie must already be sufficiently 
disorganised and paralysed so that the bourgeoisie cannot prevent the 
formation of a government of struggle against reaction and fascism;

"Second, the broadest masses of toilers, particularly the mass trade 
unions, must be in a violent state of revolt against fascism and reaction, 
but are not yet ready to rise in insurrection, to fight under Communist 
Party leadership for the achievement of Soviet power;

"Third, the differentiation and leftward movement in the ranks of Social 
Democracy and other parties participating in the united front must already 
have reached the point where a considerable proportion of them demand 
ruthless measures against the fascists and other reactionaries, struggle 
together with the Communists against fascism, and openly come out against 
the reactionary section of their own party that is hostile to the 
Communism."

Dimitrov quoted Lenin as calling for Communists to "search out forms of 
transition or approach to the proletarian revolution". He said that united 
front governments could prove to be one of the most important forms. 
However, such a government cannot bring a solution, for it is not in a 
position to overthrow the class rule of the exploiters and for that reason 
cannot finally eliminate the danger of fascist counter-revolution. 
Consequently it is necessary for Communists to prepare the class forces and 
allies for the socialist revolution.

Dimitrov would have been very interested in the developments in South 
Africa today.

There the state apparatus had been disorganised and partly paralysed. The 
defeats of the South African army in Angola put cracks in the military 
foundation; the Spear of the Nation (the armed wing of the ANC) widened 
them; the boycotts, strikes, and disobedience further disorganised the 
police and other state forces. The mass trade unions were in a state of 
revolt but not ready to rise in insurrection.

The major breakthrough was the unbanning of the SACP and the ANC. Each time 
the negotiations to end apartheid were stalled by the Government, massive 
demonstrations organised by the triple alliance forced the negotiations 
forward. The Government was knocked out, they knew they had to agree to 
elections; the elections were the count out. It is an unstable dual 
control. It has spread to the army with the inclusion of the soldiers of 
the Spear of the Nation; the police are balanced with moves for community 
police forums.

The debate in African Communist first quarter, 1997, between the 
SACP, the ANC and Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) can be 
interesting reading with Dimitrov at one's elbow.

The SACP Central Committee document looks at the two directions South 
Africa could take. One, the modernising of the National Democratic 
formation, to make it more competitive in the global stage, to stabilise 
and surpass the present crisis within a new capitalist order in the 
country. The old capitalists and the new emerging capitalist companies are 
driving in that direction. 

The other, the thorough-going revolutionary transformation of the National 
Democratic Revolution (NDR) under the leadership of the workers and the 
poor. It could also embrace a large majority of the middle strata and even 
sections of the emerging capitalists, a "patriotic bourgeoisie".

The SACP points to real achievements by the broad NDR — "the work to adopt 
one of the most progressive constitutions in the world ... the dramatic 
curtailment of political violence ... the economy which in 1990 was heading 
for a major crash, has recovered with the ANC alliance, first before it 
took office and then in 1994 [when] the reform intensified and gathered 
pace."

The organised trade unions spoke through COSATU. They quoted Marx: "We 
change the world but not under the conditions of our own choosing." It made 
an analysis of the position of the people of South Africa, the 
international position with the financial domination by the major 
countries. It looked at the dual power; the elected ANC Government; the 
entrenched power of the apartheid era ruling class.

COSATU realises the danger of being only defensive; sees that it is 
necessary for the unions and the mass organisations to further mobilise the 
masses to carry out the Reconstruction and Development Program; for the 
state to be aligned with the progressive/worker dominated movement.

The ANC document worked out by senior ANC ministers and COSATU officials 
was more defensive, looking at the need to find stability in the face of 
World Trade Organisation and the world financial powers. 

The SACP Deputy Chairman, Blade Nzimande, and the SACP Deputy General 
Secretary, Jeremy Cronin, both also prominent ANC members, criticised the 
ANC document where the goals of transformation are forgotten in a narrow-
minded pursuit of stability at all costs. It claims the ANC document sees 
the role of the state as a mediator between groups, between capital and 
labour.

COSATU as a whole and the SACP call for a state aligned to a 
progressive/worker dominated movement and mobilised mass formations. The 
struggle to change the nature of the state is a vital one for the future of 
socialism in South Africa.

It is likely that a long transition will be necessary. Dimitrov quoted 
Lenin on "the fundamental law of all revolutions" that for the masses 
propaganda and agitation alone cannot take the place of their own political 
experience, when it is a question of attracting really broad masses to the 
revolutionary vanguard without which victorious struggle for power is 
impossible.

The ANC, with a main aim of ending apartheid but not with a policy for 
socialism, is in somewhat the same position as Social Democracy with a 
considerable base in the trade unions. The SACP has established a sound 
united front with the ANC and COSATU and a mature and experienced party 
will ensure that, as much as possible, the alliance will be taken forward 
to a socialist South Africa.

How does the united front apply to Australia today? Can the Labor Party be 
involved? Does the CPA Political Resolution of 1997 put some doubt 
on the possibility?

It says: "Even though both major parties [Liberal and Labor] always 
claim that they are representing the interests of the Australian people as 
a whole, experience does not bear this out. Their first commitment is to 
the needs and demands of the big corporations."

"... it (is) more imperative than ever to build in Australia an alternative 
political force (to Liberal and Labor?) which will be capable of 
establishing a new type of government."

While encouraging alternative political forces is essential, can such a 
government be established in Australia without sections of the Labor Party 
and the main trade unions under the influence of the Labor Party?

The SPA Program of 1984 says:
 "The corner-stone of correct revolutionary 
strategy requires the achievement of working class unity in action. The 
united front means the establishment of unity of action by all sections of 
the working class, in support of the economic and political interests of 
the workers ...

"It means seeking the widest support and involvement of other working class 
activists, particularly ALP supporters, in carrying forward such united 
action ..."

The SPA Program of 1992 says:
 "... the Labor Party ... is, and will 
remain for some time, a main force in the political life of Australia. Its 
ranks include, at leadership and membership level many who express 
opposition to policies and practices of the party ..."

Perhaps there would be advantage in revisiting Dimitrov and re-examining 
the possibilities for development of united fronts and people's fronts in 
Australia and, as Dimitrov insisted, the indispensable role of Communists 
in these fronts.