From the ECCI to the Marseilles Convention of the French Communist Party¶
Core Argument¶
The Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) addresses the French Communist Party on the eve of its Marseilles Convention in December 1921, one year after the historic split at Tours. The core argument is that Tours was a necessary rupture, liquidating war-socialism and reformism, and that the party must now move beyond organisational consolidation toward genuine communist transformation. The ECCI praises the party’s growth to 130,000 members and its expanding press, but insists that congratulation is insufficient. The Comintern’s duty is fraternal criticism.
The chapter’s central polemic is directed against the Dissidents—those who left the party after Tours. The ECCI charges that they have become outright counter-revolutionaries, mouthing capitalist slanders against the Russian Revolution and falling under the political leadership of Renaudel, Grumbach, and Blum, the wartime betrayers of the French working class. The Dissidents are depicted as a connecting link between the Vienna International and the Second International. This is not merely a historical observation but a warning: the party must not equivocate with such elements.
The ECCI identifies three major weaknesses in the French party’s first year. First, weak leadership: the Central Committee immersed itself in administrative duties, failing to provide firm political direction, day-to-day guidance, or collective consciousness. It lacked an agrarian policy, a trade-union policy, and an electoral policy, deferring decisions to the convention out of fear of being accused of dictatorial practices. The ECCI demands a smaller, permanent bureau of at least five members to give continuous leadership. Second, the party’s trade-union policy is described as the most important and touchy question. The ECCI insists that Communists must remain disciplined Communists inside the unions, opposing the policy of Jouhaux and the Amsterdam International. It rejects both the subordination of unions to the party and the anarcho-syndicalist denial of the party’s revolutionary role. The party must win over syndicalists through resolute, opportunism-free policy. Third, the ECCI demands control over the unofficial party press, specifically naming La Vague (Brizon) and Journal du Peuple (Fabre). The latter is identified as the crystallisation of an opportunist tendency that bemoans the Tours split, sheds tears over the Dissidents and Serrati, and advocates a ‘left bloc’ with bourgeois parties. The ECCI insists on communist discipline and an unambiguous convention vote.
The chapter draws on the theoretical framework of the Second and Third World Congresses, particularly the principle that no party member can use press freedom to evade party control. It references the French delegation’s unanimous agreement in Moscow on this question. The ECCI also calls for greater representation of factory workers in the Central Committee and for more intimate ties between the French party and the International. The Marseilles Convention must forge the weapons for struggle against reformism in Amsterdam, London, Vienna, and Geneva, against all blocs with the bourgeoisie, and against the most criminal imperialist power. The closing note is a call to arms: the party must penetrate the capitalist army, especially the army of occupation, which may serve as a link between the German and French proletarian revolutions.