861.00 Congress, Communist International, VII/39: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 6—12:20 p.m.]
336. Pravda, August 6, 1935, reports the following excerpts from the speech of Dimitrov on August 2d:
“In each country there are knotty problems which are agitating the wide masses at the present stage around which must be formulated the struggle for the establishment of the united front. The correct solution to the approach to these knotty problems is by insuring and hastening the establishment of the united front.
(a) United States of America. Let us take for example an important country of the capitalist world such as the United States of America. The crisis has put into motion the millions of the masses. The program for reviving capitalism has collapsed. The great masses are beginning to leave the bourgeois parties and find themselves now at the parting of the ways.
[Page 236]The embryo American Fascism is attempting to direct the disenchantment and discontent of these masses along reactionary Fascist lines. Moreover the originality of the growth of American Fascism consists in the fact that at the given stage it is proceeding in general under the guise of opposition to Fascism, as a current which is not American, imported from abroad. In opposition to German Fascism which is growing under anti-constitutional slogans, American Fascism is attempting to clothe itself in the robe of defender of the constitution and ‘American democracy’. Up to the present it does not represent an immediate threat. But if it is able to penetrate into the wide masses, disillusioned by the old bourgeois parties, it can become a serious threat in the immediate future.
And what would the victory of Fascism in the United States signify? For the toiling masses it would signify naturally an unrestrained strengthening of the regime of exploitation and breakup of the working movement. And what would be the international significance of this victory of Fascism? The United States as you all know is neither Hungary nor Finland, neither Bulgaria nor Latvia. The victory of Fascism in the United States would change very materially the whole international situation.
Under such conditions can the American proletariat satisfy itself with the organization only of its class-conscious advanced guard which is ready to march along the road of revolution? No.
It is completely clear that the interests of the American proletariat demand the immediate estrangement of all of its forces from the capitalist parties. It must find the road and the appropriate forms in order not to permit the simultaneous seizure by Fascism of the dissatisfied wide masses of the toilers. At this point it is necessary to state that the creation of a mass party of toilers a ‘farm labor party’ could become the appropriate form under American conditions. Such a party could become the specific form for the wide popular front in America which must be placed in opposition to the parties of the trusts and banks as well as against the growing Fascism. Such a party naturally will be neither socialistic nor communistic but it must be anti-Fascist and must not be an anti-Communist party. The program of this party must be directed against the banks, the trusts and monopolies, against the principal enemies of the people, speculating on its distress. Such a party will justify its designation only in case it fights for the urgent needs of the working class, fights for real socialist legislation, for unemployment insurance; if it will fight for land for the white and black share-croppers and for their relief from the weight of debts; if it succeeds in nullifying the indebtedness of the farmers; if it will fight for the equality of the negro, for the protection of the requirements of the war veterans, for the protection of the interests of the representatives of the free professions, the small tradesmen and merchants. And so forth.
Naturally such a party will struggle to push its representatives into local governing organs, into the representative organs of the separate states and into the Congress and Senate.
Our comrades in the United States have acted correctly, showing initiative in the creation of such a party. But they must still take active measures in order that the creation of such a party should become the affair of the masses themselves. The question of the organization [Page 237] of the ‘farm labor party’ and its program must be decided in the mass popular gatherings. It is necessary to develop the widest possible kind of movement for the creation of this party and to lead it.
In no case can there be permitted a transfer of initiative in the organization of the party to the hands of those elements which wish to make use of the dissatisfaction of the millions of the masses, disillusioned by both of the bourgeois parties, the Democrat and the Republican, for the creation of a ‘third’ party in the United States, such as an anti-Communist party or a party directed against the revolutionary movement.…51
We hail the leader of the Spanish Socialists Caballero who has been imprisoned by the counterrevolutionists; Tom Mooney who has been languishing in prison for 18 years and the thousands of other prisoners of capital and Fascism (stormy applause) and we say to them, ‘Brothers in struggle and in arms you are not forgotten. We are with you. Every hour of our lives, every drop of our blood we will give for your liberation and the emancipation of all toilers from the disgraceful Fascist regime.[’] (Stormy applause, all in the hall rise.)
Comrades you remember the ancient story of the taking of Troy. Troy was protected from the army which was attacking her by impenetrable walls and the attacking army, having sacrificed not a few victims, could not succeed in the attack until, with the help of the famous horse of Troy, it was able to penetrate into the heart of the enemy.
We, revolutionary workers, it seems to me, must not hesitate to adopt the same tactic in respect of our Fascist enemy, protected from the people by the living wall of his executioners (applause).
He who fails to understand the necessity of the adoption of such a tactic with regard to Fascism, who considers such an approach ‘beneath him’, such a person can be the finest of fellows but if you will allow me, he is a ‘gas bag’ and not a revolutionary; such a fellow is unable to lead the masses to the overthrow of the Fascist dictatorship (applause).”
- Omission indicated in the original.↩