The Communist Internationals

Second World Congress of the Comintern - 1920

Second World Congress of the Comintern – 1920

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The Communist Internationals

If the principles of socialism have not international application and if the socialist movement is not an international movement then its whole philosophy is false and the movement has no reason for existence.

The International Working Men’s Association (The First International)

In the history of the world emancipation movement of the working class a special place is held by the International Working Men’s Association – the First International. Founded on September 28, 1864, at an international meeting held in St. Martin’s Hall, London, this first international proletarian mass organisation paved the way for the world communist movement of today. In the ranks of the International Working Men’s Association the advanced workers of Europe and America got a schooling in proletarian internationalism, imbibed the ideas of Marxism, and finally discarded petty-bourgeois sectarianism for the proletarian party principle. ‘For ten years the International dominated one side of European history – the side on which the future lies.’ Engels wrote in 1874.

Documents of the First International, Volume 1, 1864-1866, Minutes, The London Conference 1865, FLPH, Moscow, 1964, 483 pages.

Documents of the First International, Volume 2, 1866-1868, Minutes, Progress, Moscow, 1964, 444 pages.

Documents of the First International, Volume 3, 1868-1870, Minutes, Progress, Moscow, 1964, 534 pages.

Documents of the First International, Volume 4, 1870-1871, Minutes, Progress, Moscow, 1964, 617 pages,

Documents of the First International, Volume 5, 1871-1872, Minutes, Progress, Moscow, 1964, 626 pages.

Documents of the First International, Volume 6, The Hague Congress, September 2-7 1872, Minutes and Documents, Progress, Moscow, 1976, 758 pages.

Documents of the First International, Volume 7, The Hague Congress, September 2-7 1872, Reports and Letters, Progress, Moscow, 1978, 701 pages.

The International Working Men’s association and the Working Class Movement in Manchester 1865-85, Edmond and Ruth Frow, Manchester, 1979, 18 pages.

The Second International

‘By social-chauvinism we mean acceptance of the idea of the defence of the fatherland in the present imperialist war, justification of an alliance between socialists and the bourgeoisie and the governments of their ‘own’ countries in this war, a refusal to propagate and support proletarian revolutionary action against one’s ‘own’ bourgeoisie, etc.’ VI Lenin, The Collapse of the Second International in Lenin Collected Works, Volume 21, pp 205-259.

The War and the Second International, VI Lenin, (London, Martin Lawrence, 1931), Little Lenin Library, Volume Two, 63 pages. Two documents written in 1914, ‘The Collapse of the Second International’ and ‘The War and Russian Social-Democracy’.

The rise and fall of the Second International, J Lenz, International Publishers, New York, 1932, 285 pages.

A History of Socialist Thought, Volume 3, Part 1, 2nd International 1889-1914, GDH Cole, Macmillan, London, 1963, 519 pages.

A History of Socialist Thought, Volume 3, Part 2, 2nd International 1889-1914, GDH Cole, Macmillan, London, 1963, 1043 pages.

Resolution of the International Socialist Congress at Stuttgart, August 18-24 1907 and the Manifesto of the Extraordinary International Socialist Congress, Basel, November 24-25 1912.

The Second International, 1889-1914, Igor Krivoguz, Progress, Moscow, 1989, 393 pages.

The Communist International (The Third International – Comintern)

‘The Third International has gathered the fruits of the work of the Second International, discarded its opportunist, social-chauvinist, bourgeois and petty-bourgeois dross, and has begun to implement the dictatorship of the proletariat.’ VI Lenin, The Third International and its place in history, in Lenin Collected Works, Volume 29, pp 305-313.

The Manifesto of the Moscow International, Educational Press Association, Montreal, 1919, 12 pages.

Theses presented to 2nd World Congress of the Communist International, Petrograd-Moscow, July 1920, Editions of the Communist International, Petrograd, 1920, 121 pages.

Manifesto of the Communist International, adopted at the Congress of the Communist International at Moscow, march 2-6 1919, and signed by Comrades C Rakovsky, N Lenin, M Zinoviev, L Trotzky, and Fritz Platten, Arbeiter Zeitung, Chicago, n.d., 14 pages.

The Third (Communist) International, its aims and methods, James Clunie, Socialist Labour Press, Glasgow, 1921, 74 pages.

Resolutions and Theses of the 4th Congress of the Communist International, held in Moscow November 7 to December 3 1922, CPGB, London, 1923, 130 pages.

The Communist International between the 5th and 6th World Congresses, 1924-28, a report on the position of all sections of the World Communist Party, CPGB, London, 1928, 508 pages.

On the Road to Bolshevization, Workers Library Publishers, New York, 1929, 42 pages.

For Unity of the Wold Communist Movement, a letter to the Independent Labor Party of Great Britain from the Communist Party USA (Opposition), Communist Party USA, New York, 1934, 32 pages.

Program of the Communist International, together with its Constitution, adopted at the 46th Session of the Sixth World Congress of the Communist International, September 1 1928, Workers Library, New York, 1936, 94 pages.

The Spanish Revolution, M Ercoli (Togliatti), Workers Library Publishers, New York, 1937, 29 pages.

VII Congress of the Communist International, abridged stenographic report of proceedings, FLPH, Moscow, 1939, 604 pages.

The Communist International, No 4, 1940, Modern Books, London, 34 pages.

The Communist International, No 6, 1940, Modern Books, London, 34 pages.

The Communist International, No 12, 1940, Modern Books, London, 44 pages.

Workers of the world, Unite!, declaration on the dissolution of the Communist International, adopted May 27 1943, Labour News Co., New York, 1943, 28 pages.

The Third International and its place in history, VI Lenin, (Moscow, Progress, 1971) 51 pages.

Principles of Party Organization, JV Stalin, (Calcutta, Mass Publications, 1975), 47 pages. Thesis on the Organization and Structure of Communist Parties, adopted at the Third Congress of the Communist International in 1921. It was on this basis of this thesis that JV Stalin based his lectures reproduced in ‘The Foundations of Leninism’.

Communist International Documents, 1919-1943, Volume 3, 1929-1943, Jane Degras, Routledge, London, 2007, 494 pages.

Toward the united front, Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International, 1922, edited by John Riddell, Brill, Leiden, 2012, 1323 pages.

To the Masses, Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921, edited by John Riddell, Brill, Leiden, 2015, 1309 pages.

The Communist Movement at a Crossroads, Plenums of the Communist International’s Executive Committee, 1922-1923, edited by Michael Taber, Brill, Leiden, 2018, 808 pages.

History and analysis

The Communist Movement, from Comintern to Cominform, Part 1, the crisis of the Communist International, Fernando Claudin, Monthly Review, New York, 1975, 410 pages. From Marx to Mao digital reprint, 2017.

The Communist Movement, from Comintern to Cominform, Part 2, the zenith of Stalinism, Fernando Claudin, Monthly Review, New York, 1975, 450 pages. From Marx to Mao digital reprint, 2017.

The World Communist Movement, outline of strategy and tactics, edited by VV Zagladin, Progress, Moscow, 1973, 480 pages.

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The Early Years of the Revolutionary Struggle – Part 1 – 19th century – 1936

Yi Ho Tuan fighters attacking the aggressors at Langfang

Yi Ho Tuan fighters attacking the aggressors at Langfang

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The Early Years of the Revolutionary Struggle – Part 1 – 19th century – 1936

Fundamental Laws of the Chinese Soviet Republic, with an introduction by Bela Kun, International Publishers, New York, 1934, 92 pages.

Notes on ten years of civil war, 1927-1936, Chen Po-ta, FLP, Peking, 1954, 108 pages.

Republican China – Nationalism, War, and the Rise of Communism 1911-1949, Franz Schurmann and Orville Schell, Vintage, New York, 1967, 394 pages.

The Opium War, by the Compilation Group for the History of Modern China Series, 1st edition, 149 pages. (Peking: FLP, 1976)

The Reform Movement of 1898, by the Compilation Group for the History of Modern China Series, 1st edition, (Peking: FLP, 1976), 150 pages.

The Yi Ho Tuan Movement of 1900, by the Compilation Group for the History of Modern China Series, about what is called the Boxer Rebellion in the West, (Peking: FLP, 1976), 148 pages.

The Awakening of China, by James H. Dolsen, (Chicago: Daily Worker Publishing Co., 1926), 267 pages.

China In Revolt, Soviet and Comintern documents, (Not dated, but probably from around 1927), 68 pages. Includes:

  • The Prospects of the Revolution in China, speech by Comrade Stalin in the Chinese Commission of the enlarged Executive Committee of the Communist International (E.C.C.I.) on Nov. 30, 1926. Speech by Tan Ping-shan in the Plenary Session of the E.C.C.I.
  • China and the Capitalist World, a speech by Comrade Manuilsky.
  • The Prerequisites and Tasks of the Chinese Revolution, a speech by Comrade Bucharin at the Russian Party Conference.

Stalin and the Chinese Revolution, by Chen Po-ta [Chen Boda], April 21, 1952. Focuses on Stalin’s contributions in the 1920s to the development of the Chinese Revolution. (Peking: FLP, 1953), 68 pages. [Note this scan has some bleed-through from the print on the reverse sides of the pages, but is still legible.]

Civil War in Nationalist China, by Earl Browder, (Chicago: Labor Unity Pub. Ass’n, 1927), 67 pages.

China’s Millions: Revolution in Central China, 1927, by Anna Louise Strong, (Peking: New World Press, 1965), 206 pages. This is a re-issue of the 1927 volume which was the first of a projected six volume set of her Selected Works on China’s Revolution. [We do not know if the other projected volumes were published later.]

People’s Tribute, edited by T’ang Liang-li. Supportive of Chiang Kai-shek and Wang Ching-wei. Volume 1, #1-3, March-April-May 1931, first three issues bound as one, 116 pages.

War in the Far East, by Henry Hall, International Pamphlets (N.Y.), No. 2, 1932, 32 pages.

War in China, by Ray Stewart, International Pamphlets (N.Y.), No. 19, 1932, 32 pages.

Soviet China, by M. James & R. Doonping, International Pamphlets (N.Y.), No. 20, 1932, 30 pages. [Note: Unfortunately page 31 is missing in this scan.]

Suppressing Communist-Banditry in China, edited by T’ang Liang-li, and of course representing the Chiang Kai-shek/Guomindang point of view. (Shanghai: 1934), 146 pages.

The Revolutionary Movement in the Colonial Countries, by Wang Ming, the revised copy of the speech given on Aug. 7, 1935 in Moscow at the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International. (NY: Workers Library Publishers, 1935), 68 pages.

On the Long March with Chairman Mao, by Chen Chang-feng, a PLA orderly who accompanied Mao on the famous Long March in 1934-36. (Peking: FLP, 1972), 2nd ed. [1st edition was in 1959.], 136 pages.

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