Capitalism’s Mortal Crisis

(PROMETEO no 5, 1st of September 1928)

The 5th Congress (1) held immediately after the London conference (2) and the drawing up of the Dawes Plan (3), on the triumph of the Labourites in England (4) and the Cartel des Gauches (5) in France, drew its inspiration from the central thesis of the ’stabilisation’ of the capitalist economy. Influenced by this thesis the Anglo-Russian Committee was formed and preparations were made to sacrifice the International Red Union to the labourite chiefs in the fallacious prospect of getting in exchange their support for Soviet Russia at a time when, because of ’stabilisation’, one couldn’t count on the direct support of proletarian revolutionary battles.

The Enlarged Executive of 1926 clarified the stabilisation thesis further.

Today we know the unequivocal answer events themselves provided: the great English general strike in 1926 found the communist party totally unprepared, whilst the labourite chiefs, signatories of the Anglo-Russian Pact, quietly carried out their mission of betrayal. And not only were the labourites largely undisturbed by the communists but a year later they had managed to force the Russian trade-union leaders to completely renounce any criticism, amounting to an imposition of complicity in counter-revolutionary crimes. And the English party, guided by the stabilisation perspective and caught by surprise when the strike occurred, was unable to head off the inevitable betrayal of the leaders and the English proletariat was therefore prevented – thanks to the International – from drawing valuable lessons from the experience.

The Enlarged Executive of March 1926 would allow Zinoviev, in opposition at the time, the consolation of revising the formula of ’stabilisation’ to that of ’unstable stabilisation’ (…)

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Editor’s notes:
(1) The 5th Congress of the Comintern met between June 18 and July 8th, 1924.
(2) Refers to the Anglo-USSR Conference held on April 14, 1924. Two draft treaties were later published constituting a pact between the two states and preparing the way for a trade-loan to the USSR.
(3) A plan which made proposals for ’rescheduling’ German war reparations to allow payments in kind to be made.
(4) Ramsay MacDonald formed the 1st (minority) Labour Government on January 23rd, 1924.
(5) Refers to the left-wing bloc which came to power in France, under prime-minister Herriot, president of the Radical Party, on June 13th. This Government collaborated closely with MacDonald and was of a similar short duration.