Statement by the Italian Delegation

Third (Communist) International
Third Congress
Statement by the Italian Delegation
(14^th Session)

(From the German Protocol, pp. 669‑670)

The Italian delegation declares that the amendments it is supporting should be understood only with the meaning intended by their movers and certainly not in the manner indicated by Comrade Lenin in his speech.

The Communist Party of Italy has never supported a putschist theory and has no intention of supporting one now. The best proof of this is the struggle that the party carries out on a daily basis against the anarchists and syndicalists.

Contrary to Comrade Lenin’s apparent interpretation, the Italian delegation does not oppose organizing the proletarian masses on a constantly widening basis. This is assured simply by the broad recruitment work carried out by the Communist Party of Italy among the working masses.

The Italian delegation does not deny the need to lead the workers in struggles or limited actions. And, indeed, the Communist Party of Italy does lead them in all their movements and risings.

In his interpretation of the proposed amendments, Comrade Lenin ruthlessly struggles against the nightmare of putschism, which – where it exists – is truly dangerous. But this danger is not present in the Communist Party of Italy. Comrade Lenin is thus, without wanting to, providing the opportunist and centrist tendencies, with which we have been engaged in prolonged struggle, with a weapon and a means of struggle against us.

The Italian delegation explained at the beginning of the debate, on behalf of the others proposing the amendments to Comrade Radek’s theses, that the delegation would vote for the theses and accept them in their broad outline before sending them back to the commission.