Gramsci's intervention at the Como conference
Lo Stato Operaio, 29 May 1924; L'Unità, 5 June 1924.
Text from Antonio Gramsci 'Selections from political writings (1921-1926)', translated and edited by Quintin Hoare (Lawrence and Wishart, London 1978), transcribed to the www with the kind permission of Quintin Hoare.
I have observed that the mood of comrades has above all been
expressed against the so-called "Centre" of the party, and find it
strange that a question of nomenclature should have such
importance within the Communist Party. It is necessary to study
the problems from a more serious and more concrete point of
view.
Comrade Bordiga states that he has not even tried to constitute
a real faction inside the party. But it is undeniable that when a
comrade with a personality like that of Bordiga stands apart, and
no longer takes any active part in the work of the party, this
fact alone is enough to create a factional mentality among the
comrades. It is necessary to take account of this fact in judging
our attitude in the present debate. Moreover, we do not have to
make any very great efforts to find what our origins were.
In 1919-20, there were three tendencies which later united to
form the Communist Party: that represented by L'Ordine
Nuovo of Turin, the abstentionists, and finally a third,
which is only now tending to clarify its positions, and which
included all those comrades who entered the party at the time of
the Livorno split without having belonged to either of the two
tendencies I have already mentioned. We of the Ordine Nuovo
tendency have always believed it necessary - even before the party
was established - to ally ourselves with the left rather than with
the right. Any other course, in our view, would have led to
promoting tendencies from which we feel very distant.
In this connection, I recall that in Turin, immediately before
and after the general strike of April 1920, we were led to break
with the group headed by comrade Tasca. 146 Seeing the opportunist
danger of the Right, we preferred to ally ourselves with the
abstentionists and, at a certain moment, even leave the whole
leadership of the section in their hands.
According to many comrades, the occupation of the factories
represented the highest point in the revolutionary development of
the Italian proletariat. For us, that event initiated the period
of decline of the working-class movement. Well, making an estimate
at that time of which forces in the socialist movement were most
capable of limiting the defeat, we were once again with the
Left. And we thought that without the abstentionists, the
Communist Party could not be established.
We still maintain that point of view today. But on the other
hand, we cannot ignore the errors which the Left has made. In this
respect, it is as well to remember that the vote on the Rome
Theses had a purely generic and consultative character, and that
those Theses should have been represented to the party - with
certain modifications, perhaps - after the Fourth Congress of the
Third International. Unfortunately, this could not be done because
of the deterioration of the overall situation. But today the
situation is no longer the same as that which existed in 1921 and
1922. There are the first signs of a recovery of the workers'
movement. How will this develop? It is certain that it cannot fail
to undergo the influence of the experience which all classes and
political parties have acquired in the last few years. This
experience has given every group its own physiognomy.
In 1919 and 1920, the whole working population - from the
whitecollar workers of the North and the capital to the peasants
of the South - was following, albeit unconsciously, the general
movement of the industrial proletariat. Today the situation has
changed, and only through a long, slow process of political
reorganization will the proletariat be able to return to being the
dominant factor in the situation. We consider that this work
cannot be carried out, if we continue to follow the orientation
which- comrade Bordiga would like the party to continue to
follow. The recent electoral performance of our party certainly
has great significance, but it is undeniable that our movement
lacks the support of the majority of the proletariat.
Bordiga. We would have it, if we had not changed our tactics
towards the Socialist Party! In any case, we are in no hurry.
Gramsci. Well. we are in a hurry! There are situations in which
"not being in a hurry" leads to defeat. In 1920, for instance, it
was necessary to be in a hurry. I recall that in July of that
year, I attended the Abstentionist conference in Florence to
propose the creation and establishment of a national communist
faction. 141 Comrade Bordiga then too "was in no hurry" and
rejected our proposal, so that the occupation of the factories
took place without there existing an organized communist faction
in Italy, capable of giving the masses who followed the Socialist
Party a national slogan. The 'time" factor is also
important. Sometimes it is of capital importance.
I have the impression that the comrades who have so far
expressed their opinions have forgotten what the fundamental
problem which faces our party today is: its relations with the
Communist International. Comrade Bordiga's attitude too can be
useful, in a certain sense; but his error lies in not taking
account of the party's need to resolve the problem of relations
with the International. Bordiga's attitude besides can only result
in the emergence of a group of heterogeneous elements who will be
able to find a measure of unity and consistency in the fact of
declaring themselves 'for the International'. This result, which
we have already had to lament once, serves to prove how
intrinsically incorrect Bordiga's attitude is. The origin of the
'minority' should be ascribed to it.
With respect to the comrades of the minority, the situation has
been partly altered as a result of the statement they have
produced; but not all the differences have disappeared. On the
present political programme, the minority asserts that no
disagreement exists. In reality, I recall that in Moscow, for
example, comrade Tasca opposed the formula of replacing the unions
within the factory. Today, this problem is one of the most
important which confront our party. It is posed in the following
terms: how must the Communist Party - effective centre of the
revolutionary vanguard lead the trade-union struggles of the
working class? Create factory cells, very well: but what work must
these carry out? We are convinced that now the Internal
Commissions have disappeared, if not formally at least in a
functioning sense, the workers will turn to the Communist cells
not just for questions of a political character, but also for
their trade-union defence; and that it is therefore necessary that
comrades should be prepared to carry out this work too. It will be
necessary for these problems to be fully studied and thought
through, all the more because we are at a decisive turning-point
in the history of the Italian workers' movement.
The comrades of the Left protest their disciplined attitude to
the International. We say to them: "It is not enough to say that
one is disciplined. It is necessary to situate oneself on the
terrain of activity indicated by the International." If the
International, for reasons known to all, has up to now made
concessions, this cannot continue in the future, since this would
lead to the fragmentation of the International itself. What has
occurred recently inside the Russian party must serve as valuable
experience for US. Trotsky's attitude, initially, can be compared
to comrade Bordiga's at present. Trotsky, although taking part "in
a disciplined manner" in the work of the party, had through his
attitude of passive opposition - similar to Bordiga's - created a
state of unease throughout the party, which could not fail to get
a whiff of this situation. The result was a crisis which lasted
several months, and which only today can be said to have been
overcome. This shows that opposition - even kept within the limits
of a formal discipline - on the part of exceptional personalities
in the workers' movement can not merely hamper the development of
the revolutionary situation, but can put in danger the very
conquests of the revolution.
A few words more on the workers' government. At the June 1923
Enlarged Executive meeting, comrade Trotsky predicted the creation
of the Cartel des Gauches in France, and posed the problem of the
attitude which the French communists should adopt in such a
situation. 141 At the time, not much importance was given to this
problem. Well, today we can see that the French workers have only
given 850 thousand votes to the communists, while they have given
millions to the Cartel des Gauches. And if the communists at least
won these 850 thousand votes, it was due to the fact that they
presented the communist slate as the slate of a Workers' and
Peasants' Bloc.
Bordiga. Yet a good third of the communist votes were won in Paris, where there are no peasants.
Gramsci. That is true, but one must not forget that all the
revolutions of the Paris proletariat have been defeated because of
the isolation in which it found itself, and that therefore the
Paris workers understand perfectly the need to unite with the
peasantry.
Bordiga. But why call it a "bloc" and not simply Communist
Party? Does the Communist Party not have the alliance between
workers and peasants in its programme?
Gramsci. Let us not quarrel about words. It is necessary to
present things in the way one considers most effective to move
even the most backward sections of the masses. Not all the workers
can understand the whole development of the revolution. Today, for
example, the Italian workers of the South are undoubtedly
revolutionaries, yet they continue to swear by Di Cesarò
and De Nicola.We must take account of such states of mind, and
seek means to overcome them. If the communists go among the
peasants of the South and speak of their programme, they are not
understood. If one of us went to my village to talk about "
struggle against the capitalists", he would be told that
"capitalists" do not exist in Sardinia. Yet even these masses must
be won over. We have the possibility, given precisely the
conditions created by fascism, to initiate a mass anti-reactionary
movement in the South. But it is necessary to win over these
masses, and this can be done only by participating in the
struggles which they launch for partial victories and partial
demands. The "workers' and peasants' government" slogan must serve
to bring together and synthesize the content of these partial
struggles, in a programme which can be understood even by the most
backward masses.
These are our ideas on the problems of today. I repeat that the
comrades must not make an issue of nomenclature: in 1919 Buozzi
rebuked us for carrying out activity - through the Factory
Councils - that was too reformist. We laughed at the time, and the
facts have shown who was reformist and who was revolutionary. Let
comrades pose concrete questions, and let them remember that at
the present time the most important question is that of our
party's relations with the Communist International.