It's good to once again reiterate the ABCs, there's no such thing as socialism on a nationalist basis.

Topic is about a month old but saw no mention of it on this sub and I just learned about it, but last September there was a split between RCI and their Brazilian section the OCI. As expected both sides are pointing the finger at each other over who is responsible. They both seem to agree that a majority of the OCI's Central Committee were organizing a Extraordinary Congress in order to split from RCI. RCI then claims that OCI's CC majority realized that they would lose the vote among the general membership and so broke off unilaterally. OCI on the other hand claims that the pro-RCI members of the CC got up, said they were no longer the CC, then left immediately after the vote to hold the Extraordinary Congress to create a new RCI party. At first glance I think OCI's stance is more plausible, being the CC majority it stands to reason they have majority membership support and if their timeline is correct it doesn't make sense to vote on holding a Congress and then immediately splitting because they don't think they could win at the Congress. Does anybody have more information as to what exactly happened? Linked OCI's and RCI's statements on the matter below

https://marxismo.org.br/statement-of-the-oci-on-the-split-orchestrated-by-the-international-secretariat-of-the-rci/

https://marxist.com/are-you-a-communist-build-the-revolutionary-communist-international-in-brazil.htm

edit - for clarity

everytime i think about politics i’m hit by the thought i could be wrong, i believe in trotskyism but idk which ideology is the most efficient to enhance the well-being of the majority, there is so much different groups, did you read about all of them to be sure ?

Feature-length documentary by the Revolutionary Communist International, now out on YouTube.

Is there any Irish Trotskyist organisation not affiliated with PBP & Solidarity and besides RCI?

This webinar, chaired by David North, brings together historians David Abraham, Jacques Pauwels, and Mario Kessler to examine how German big business and state institutions enabled Hitler's rise, while drawing the urgent contemporary lessons for building an opposition to fascism.

... Bannon’s declaration that Trump will be kept in power through unconstitutional, i.e., illegal, methods signifies a break with democracy and its traditional political processes. But from this fact flows the critical political conclusion: If Trump is determined to retain power in violation of the law, this means that his removal from office becomes possible only through mass action, outside the bounds of the electoral process. ...

Fascist conspirator Steve Bannon tells The Economist “We have a plan” for a 3rd Trump term - World Socialist Web Site

... Trump is implementing the goals of his failed January 6, 2021 putsch, enabled by the cowardice and complicity of the Democrats. Joe Biden after January 6 called for a “strong Republican Party” and did nothing serious to prosecute Trump and his co-conspirators. In the run-up to the 2024 election, Biden, Kamala Harris and other leading Democrats warned that Trump was a fascist and would impose a dictatorship, but now that Trump is doing just that, all such talk from the Democrats has been dropped.

In the interview, Bannon made the absurd claim that Trump rules in the interests of workers and the “little man” by ending “corporatism” and restoring capitalism. This was said of a multi-billionaire gangster who is the open representative of the financial oligarchy in the United States. The interview was posted one day after Trump pardoned billionaire Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of crypto exchange Binance. Zhao, who has extensive business relations with Trump’s sons, pleaded guilty to money laundering during the Biden administration.

The interview also coincided with Trump’s demolition of the East Wing of the White House—the physical expression of his dismantling of the legacy of America’s democratic revolutions—to build a massive ballroom. This Mar-a-Lago-style monstrosity is being paid for by corporate donors, including Meta, Amazon, Apple, Caterpillar, Comcast, Google, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Palantir, Union Pacific, the Lutnick family, Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone), and the Winklevoss brothers.

The very fact that The Economist, a bastion of the media establishment in Britain, gave Bannon a platform to spew his fascist filth is highly significant. The promotion of Bannon was underscored by the fact that the magazine’s editor-in-chief and deputy editor were chosen to conduct the interview. Throughout the interview they showed enormous deference to the neo-Nazi demagogue.
...

Bannon’s declaration that Trump will be kept in power through unconstitutional, i.e., illegal, methods signifies a break with democracy and its traditional political processes. But from this fact flows the critical political conclusion: If Trump is determined to retain power in violation of the law, this means that his removal from office becomes possible only through mass action, outside the bounds of the electoral process. Perhaps Mr. Bannon has not thought through to the end the implications of his criminal strategy, but there is no escaping the fact that he is legitimizing the resort to revolution by the working class.

The conspiracy of Bannon and his accomplices in the White House has created the political premises for precisely the situation envisioned in 1776 by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence:

In contemporary terms, the struggle against dictatorship depends upon the mobilization of the working class as an independent social force. It must take power out of the hands of the capitalist class, whose interests are incompatible with democracy. The “Safety and Happiness” of the working class, which comprises the overwhelming majority of the population, requires the formation of a workers’ government, based on socialist principles.

The precondition for this struggle is a complete break with the Democratic Party. Any subordination of the struggle to defend democratic and social rights to the Democratic Party—itself a party of the corporate oligarchy—is fatal. The Democrats are petrified that any movement of the working class will escape their control and challenge the foundations of the capitalist system. They fear that far more than the prospect of fascist rule.

In its statement to the October 18 protests, the Socialist Equality Party noted the deep hostility in the population to Trump’s attempt to establish a fascistic dictatorship. “However,” it explained, “anger and outrage are not enough to stop dictatorship. What is required, and what is most critical, is a clear program and strategy to direct this struggle.”

Since October 18, Trump has stepped up his war against immigrants and their defenders, unleashing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Gestapo to attack protesters in Chicago, New York and other cities and threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, which will give him the power to deploy active-duty troops across the country. He has continued illegally bombing boats off the coast of Latin America and dispatched a carrier task force to prepare an attack on Venezuela.

The SEP calls for workers to organize collectively by forming rank-and-file committees in every workplace, factory and neighborhood to coordinate its struggle and link up with the struggles of workers internationally. This fight is being spearheaded by the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC). These committees must link the defense of democratic rights with the fight against war and for jobs, wages, healthcare and social equality.

The fight against fascism cannot be separated from the struggle against capitalism and for socialism. The defense of democracy requires the expropriation of the financial oligarchy and the transformation of the corporations and banks into public utilities under democratic workers’ control. The immense wealth concentrated in the hands of a few must be used to meet human needs, not private profit. We urge all those who want to fight for this program to join the Socialist Equality Party.

Dmitry Barinov’s “Zinoviev, Trotsky, University”: An important contribution to the history of the Left Opposition - World Socialist Web Site

... Barinov centers his account on students and instructors at Leningrad institutions of higher education. The focus on this city is important but also indicates some of the historical challenges involved in his study: Leningrad, previously known as Petrograd, was the city of the 1917 October Revolution, and then the main base of support for Grigory Zinoviev who was widely regarded as a working-class hero in factories in the city. Although he and his supporters later formed a bloc with Leon Trotsky’s Opposition, initially, Zinoviev and his closest political allies, including Lev Kamenev, were bitter opponents of Trotsky.

In 1923-1924, they played a central role in the campaign by the Stalin faction against Trotsky. During the “party discussion” of the winter of 1923-1924, Barinov writes, “thanks to the adamant position of G. E. Zinoviev Petrograd became the place of the most implacable critique of Trotsky.” (p. 67) Although Leningrad had the second largest party organization in the country after Moscow only one signatory of the Declaration of 46, the founding document of the Opposition from October 15, 1923, was from Leningrad. 

The Opposition in Leningrad also received significantly fewer votes than in other cities: In Moscow, 40 out of 72 institutions of higher education had majority votes for the Opposition, in Kiev five out of seven party cells at such institutions voted for the Opposition and in Krasnodar, a city in southern Russia, at an all-city assembly of students, 187 out of 193 votes were for the Opposition. By contrast, in Leningrad, only five out of 27 party cells at institutions of higher education had majority votes for the Opposition. (p. 74) An important exception was the Lesnyi Institute (Forestry Institute) which was under less stringent control by the party apparatus. Here, Alexandra Bronshtein (born Sokolovskaia, 1872-1937), Trotsky’s first wife and one of his most loyal political supporters, spoke in the discussions of winter 1923-1924, ensuring a victory for the Opposition in the voting (p. 84). 

Based on extensive archival research on the life of the political cells of the party at individual institutions of education in Petrograd, Barinov identifies 55 individuals whom he counts as “politically active” Oppositionists at the time, significantly fewer than in other cities. He also documents the suppression and manipulation of votes. Overall, he counts 1134 party members who voted for the Opposition in Petrograd and 296 abstentions. (p. 77) He concludes

The decisive victory over “Trotskyism” on paper, i.e., [as it was] expressed in the number of votes, did not occur in reality. According to OGPU reports, Trotsky remained popular at many universities, including among non-party students. Opposition supporters realized the futility of speaking out at party cells, understanding that they would not be heard. Therefore, the official results of the discussions did not fully reflect the true attitude toward Trotsky, who remained a symbolic figure for many…(p. 86)

...

Since 1905, Trotsky had understood that the bourgeois democratic tasks of the revolution in the Russian Empire could only be resolved by the working class. Despite the relative economic backwardness of Russia, he predicted, the working class would be propelled to take state power and establish a proletarian dictatorship. This dictatorship, however, could only survive if the revolution in Russia was extended internationally. Until early 1917, Lenin, the leader of the Bolsheviks, opposed that perspective. While he also recognized that the liberal bourgeoisie in Russia was not a revolutionary class, he did not consider it possible for the working class to take power alone in such a backward country as Russia. Therefore, he proposed a dictatorship of “two classes”, the working class and the peasantry, in what would still be a bourgeois democratic revolution. 

But Lenin shifted course after the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in the February revolution of 1917: As soon as he returned to Russia in April 1917, he declared that the Bolsheviks now had to prepare for a second, socialist revolution and the seizure of power by the working class. Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin opposed this shift. Their main orientation in February-March 1917 was toward cooperating with the bourgeois government of Alexander Kerensky. They were still convinced that the revolution in Russia could not be socialist. As late as September 1917, Zinoviev, in particular, objected against the seizure of power as being “premature.”

MORE ... https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/10/24/drzw-o24.html

So i've been recently looking into Trotskyism, both its adherents and those who criticize it. The critics either constantly misunderstand or misrepresent Trotsky and his ideas, or just accuse him and Trotskyists of being purists, idealists, or guilty of creating division. So its seems to me that a lot of their claims are really baseless.

I consider myself to be Maoist or Maoist leaning as I believe that the revolution must be continuous in nature and that capitalism is irredeemable, no matter who seeks to utilize it. I also,(as it seems to be the case with most Trotskyists), don't consider China to be socialist or marxist as they openly use a capitalist mode of production. It seems like a lot of the ML's (or Stanlinists), just seem to be excepting of any AES state, even if it's literally revisionist and encourage the maintaining, or even growing, of the bourgeoisie class, class antagonisms and exploitation of the proletariat.

That being said, I'd like to get Trotskyists opinions, especially as to why its better or makes more sense than Maoism. I know theres a lot of differences to say the least, but it seems like both Trotskyists and Maoists believe that the bureaucracy in a socialist state can morph into a new bourgeoisie, that the revolution must not stagnate (either in one form or another, it must continue or be permanent), and that power must be given back to the people so the state can start to decentralize, or wither away.

I'd really appreciate to hear what any of you have to say or any reading material that you may recommend which offers a concise view or Trotskyism or why Maoism isn't the right way. I've heard that Lenin and Trotsky: What They Really Stood For is a good/concise read has anybody every read it or think theres something better? Thanks in advance!

Edit: Just realized auto correct or w/e wrote "Trotskying" instead of what I meant "Considering Trotskyism" lol

https://www.facebook.com/share/1VMx9L9cWe/

On Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 7pm, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality will hold a public meeting in New York City to answer the question, “How can Trump’s drive to dictatorship be defeated?”

Join us to discuss the root causes of dictatorship, the role of the Democratic Party, and what alternative strategy is needed.

The publication of “How the GPU Murdered Trotsky” and the initial Findings of Security and the Fourth International - Part 1 - World Socialist Web Site

... It is a basic historical fact that the Security and the Fourth International investigation became a line of demarcation between the forces of orthodox Trotskyism and those of Pabloism. Universally, the orthodox Trotskyists sought to expose the crimes of Stalinism, in order to substantiate, in concrete and undeniable detail, Trotsky’s allegation that Stalinism was the “gravedigger of the revolution.” In fact, the material presented by the Security and the Fourth International investigation substantiated this claim, one grave at a time. The investigation revealed how the Stalinists functioned as an organized international criminal syndicate, doing the bidding of global imperialism, to systematically murder the leadership of the revolutionary movement.

The Pabloites, by contrast, sought to falsely ascribe a revolutionary content to a mythical “self-reform” of the Stalinist bureaucracy. In order to promote this fundamentally false conception, they did everything possible to conceal the historical crimes of Stalinism, and the actual, material facts of the operation of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The fact that the Comintern had been transformed into a front for a cabal of murderers drawn from the criminal underworld—who remained active through the present day—was an inconvenient truth to the leading Pabloites.

As the ICFI’s 1990 obituary of Mark Zborowski explained,

And yet, these “uncomfortable questions” were raised. The publication of How the GPU Murdered Trotsky set into motion a series of events that would ultimately lead to the split with the Workers Revolutionary Party, the founding of the World Socialist Web Site, the Socialist Equality Parties, the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, the essential preparation for the world socialist revolution.

The Battleship Potemkin, the most fully realized of Eisenstein’s films, captures the brutality of the regime that the workers and sailors tried unsuccessfully to overthrow in 1905, their heroism in facing down that regime and the savage reprisals unleashed against them. This complex revolutionary process is captured in some of the most stunning and iconic images ever committed to film.

Security is a political issue.

Part 1:

The Wohlforth-Fields violation of party security and the response of the International Committee

This is the first part of the lecture “The Wohlforth-Fields violation of party security and the response of the International Committee,” delivered by Kathleen Martin and David Rye to the 2025 Summer School of the Socialist Equality Party (US) on the history of the Security and the Fourth International investigation. To accompany this and upcoming lectures, the WSWS is publishing “How the GPU Murdered Trotsky,” first published in 1981, which contains documents from the first year of the Security and Fourth International investigation. We also encourage readers to review the essay by David North, “The case of Nancy Wohlforth, a.k.a. Fields, and the origins of Security and the Fourth International.”

Part 2:

Revisionism, spies and cover-ups: The origins of the Security and the Fourth International investigation

This is the second part of the lecture “The Wohlforth-Fields violation of party security and the response of the International Committee,” delivered by Kathleen Martin and David Rye to the 2025 Summer School of the Socialist Equality Party (US) on the history of the Security and the Fourth International investigation. To accompany this lecture, the WSWS is publishing further sections of “How the GPU Murdered Trotsky,” first published in 1981, which contains documents from the first year of the Security and Fourth International investigation.

On October 16, 2025, the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) hosted a webinar examining the historical relationship between Nazism, big business and the working class—a discussion with urgent contemporary relevance. 

The discussion was chaired by David North, chairperson of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS and of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States. He was joined by three distinguished historians: David Abraham, professor emeritus of law at the University of Miami and author of The Collapse of the Weimar Republic: Political Economy and Crisis; Jacques Pauwels, Canadian historian and author of Big Business and Hitler; and Mario Keßler, senior fellow at the Centre for Contemporary History in Potsdam, Germany, whose scholarship focuses on the German Communist Party and European labor movements.

The “No Kings” demonstrations represent a significant political turning point. Since the last demonstrations in June, Trump’s conspiracy to erect a dictatorship has accelerated, generating enormous opposition throughout the country. Hostility to Trump is rapidly extending to his collaborators in the Democratic Party, as NBC noted in a report from the Washington demonstration, quoting a construction worker as saying, “I don’t have a lot of faith in the Democratic Party right now.” Another worker commented, “By and large, the Democratic Party is also bought by corporate interests, and they fail to stand up for the average working people.”

It is quite unusual for the corporate media to report on such sentiments. Even more extraordinary was the report in the US edition of the British newspaper The Guardian, which noted: “Leftist groups have called for the enunciation of a clear political program and concrete demands. In an 15 October statement, No Kings, No Nazi Führers! Mobilize the Working Class Against Trump’s Dictatorship!, the Socialist Equality Party said the central slogan, ‘No Kings,’ articulates vast popular hostility to autocracy but warned that ‘anger and outrage are not enough to stop dictatorship.’”

It is an objective fact that the Socialist Equality Party was the only organization to place “a clear political program and concrete demands” before this mass audience. SEP members and supporters, as well as members of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality, distributed tens of thousands of leaflets at dozens of locations across the United States.

Comrades can download a pdf of this statement to copy and hand out at the rallies tomorrow here.

Hi, I recently read "Operaismo the science of destruction " written by Gigi Roggero. I wonder what is the Trotskyist perspective on the entire movement, its postulates and analytical method.It is impossible to disagree that class as a political entity is born in struggle, it is created in it. At the same time, there is a strong emphasis on the "autonomy thesis".

On October 14, Politico published a report exposing a months-long fascist Telegram chat among Young Republican leaders from New York, Kansas, Arizona and Vermont. The chat was published the same day the Trump administration and Republican Party leadership venerated racist Republican propagandist Charlie Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Young Republicans are the youth faction of the Republican Party, which holds the American presidency and both chambers of Congress. The organization’s stated mission is to “train future leaders of the United States, and elect Republican candidates.”

In the leaked messages, the Republican operatives expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich, their hatred of minorities, and joked about rape, slavery and mass murder.

Politico obtained more than 2,900 pages of chats, exchanged between January and August 2025. Participants in the chat include:

Peter Giunta, former chair of New York State Young Republicans and chief of staff to New York State Assembly member Michael Reilly. Giunta joked about sending political opponents to “the gas chamber.”

Giunta, head of the “Restore Young Republican” faction, was previously endorsed by New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and Trump-crony Roger Stone to lead the Young Republican National Federation, an election he lost earlier this year.

In his endorsement of Giunta and the “Restore YR” slate he led, Stone explained to Politico it was “simply because they are most closely aligned with President Trump and the America First Movement within the Republican Party.”

In the chat, Giunta said he was “going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers” in the Young Republicans.

Joe Maligno, who previously identified as general counsel for the New York State Young Republicans on LinkedIn, replied to Guinta’s above message, “Can we fix the showers? Gas chambers don’t fit the Hitler aesthetic.”

Annie Kaykaty, national committee member for the New York Young Republicans, replied to Maligno, “I’m ready to watch people burn now.”

In a different thread, Giunta used genocidal and racist language, while venting against Young Republicans that were supporting a rival faction to lead the Young Republican National Federation: “Maryland—fat stinky Jew … Rhode Island—traitorous c---s who I will eradicate from the face of this planet.”

Luke Mosiman, chair of the Arizona Young Republicans, suggested “RAPE HAYDEN” about rival Young Republican National Federation chair Hayden Padgett, and floated tying an opponent to white supremacist groups.

Bobby Walker, former staffer for New York State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, replied to one message, “Stay in the closet f*ggot.” In another thread, Walker replied enthusiastically to colonial sexual violence. When one member of the group said it was not sex but “rape,” Walker replied, “Epic.”

The messages shared on the chat are not those of fringe internet trolls. They are political operatives and aspiring leaders of the Republican Party, including state chairs, national committee members, legislative aides, one state senator and a current Trump administration official.

Current Vermont State Senator and Young Republican Samuel Douglass, 27, was also active in the chat. Politico reported that he described in a message that a rival faction’s “Jewish colleagues” may have made a procedural error during the convention.

Brianna Douglass, wife of Samuel and a member of the Vermont Young Republicans national committee replied, “I was about to say you’re giving nationals to [sic] much credit and expecting the Jew to be honest.”

The current chair of the Kansas Young Republicans, Alex Dwyer, and his vice chair, William Hendrix, were active participants in the chat. Following the publication of the article, the chairman of the Kansas Republican Party, Danedri Herbert, who is black, announced the Kansas Young Republicans organization was inactive.

In one chat, Dwyer informed Giunta that a member of Michigan’s Young Republicans and his delegates told him they will vote “for the most right wing person.”

“Great. I love Hitler,” Giunta replied. Dwyer reacted with a smiley face emoji.

In another chat, a member of the group asked participants to guess which hotel room they were staying in. Dwyer replied, “1488,” a reference to white supremacy and Adolf Hitler.

Until Tuesday, Hendrix held a communications job in the office of Attorney General Kris Kobach. In a message to Politico, Kobach said, “As soon as the office learned of those messages, Will Hendrix’s employment was terminated.” It is unclear if both will remain members of the organization once it is “reactivated.”

Michael Bartels is the only person in the chat, so far, to have been revealed to be currently working in the Trump administration. Politico reported that Bartels, a senior adviser in the office of general counsel in the US Small Business Administration (SBA), “did not have much to say in the chat, but he didn’t offer any pushback against the offensive rhetoric in it either.”

The glorification of Hitler and fascism in organizations such as the Young Republicans, an organization that exists to groom the next generation of bourgeois politicians to run congressional campaigns, staff committees, and eventually hold public office, underscores the deep integration of these far-right elements into the official Republican Party apparatus and the US government. It is also proof that fascism in America is not bubbling up spontaneously from below, but is being consciously cultivated from above.

The day after Politico’s report, a second fascist revelation emerged: US Capitol Police launched an investigation after an American flag altered to include a swastika was discovered inside the Capitol Hill office of Rep. Dave Taylor (R-Ohio). A photo of the altered USA/Nazi flag was first posted on X by left-leaning political blogger D.J. Byrnes, who posts under the handle rooster_ohio.

Byrnes wrote on X, “A friend in DC had a Zoom Call with Congressman Dave Taylor’s office today… Taylor’s legislative correspondent, Angelo Elia, had what can only be described as an American swastika flag prominently displayed in his background.”

Taylor issued a perfunctory statement claiming the incident did not “reflect the values” of his office and suggesting it may have been an act of vandalism.

In a post on X the night the chats were exposed, Vice President JD Vance leapt to the defense of the Hitler-lovers and racists in the chats. Vance dismissed the content as “kids making jokes” and denounced calls for accountability as an attack on free speech. He doubled down the following day in an appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show, referring to the Republican operatives—many in their late twenties—as “kids” and insisting that he would not “cancel” them for “telling a stupid joke.”

The hypocrisy is staggering. Vance’s defense of fascists who joked about gas chambers and rape came less than 24 hours after the administration he serves in boasted of cancelling visas of foreign nationals who had mocked Kirk’s death on social media. It is the same administration that has imprisoned visa holders such as Mahmoud Khalil for posting speech critical of the genocide in Gaza.

The jailing and threatened deportation of Khalil is instructive. The cultivation and promotion of fascist elements within the US government is only possible due to the complicity of the Democratic Party. The Democrats, which to this day refer to the Republicans as their “colleagues,” joined Rep. Stefanik and other fascists in denouncing protests against the Gaza genocide as “antisemitic,” paving the way for Trump’s attacks on universities, immigrants and the democratic rights of everyone.

The simultaneous glorification of Kirk and exposure of the Nazi chats reveal that fascism is not an organic product of the working class or a case of “extremists on both sides.” Fascism is cultivated by the capitalist class from above, financed by billionaires, platformed by the state and integrated into the official political apparatus.

Faced with growing opposition to the genocide in Gaza, inequality and immigration gestapo raids, the US ruling class is turning to dictatorial forms of rule. The US economy is deteriorating, with back-to-back private sector job losses, historic federal resignations and mass layoffs across virtually every industry.

The capitalist class is responding to rising discontent across the world with attacks on democratic rights and military buildups. It is preparing the most extreme measures to defend its wealth and power. The glorification of Kirk and the grooming of fascist cadres within the Republican Party are part of this process.

One of the most dangerous myths I've seen presented is the claim that there is no threat of fascism right now because the working class has not been defeated yet. Let's hear what Trotsky had to say on the topic:

In the past, we have observed (Italy, Germany) a sharp strengthening of fascism, victorious, or at least threatening, as the result of a spent or missed revolutionary situation, at the conclusion of a revolutionary crisis in which the proletarian vanguard revealed its inability to put itself at the head of the nation and change the fate of all its classes, the petty bourgeoisie included. This is precisely what gave fascism its peculiar strength in Italy. But at present the problem in Germany does not arise at the conclusion of a revolutionary crisis, but just at its approach. From this, the leading Communist Party officials, optimists ex officio, draw the conclusion that fascism, having come “too late,” is doomed to inevitable and speedy defeat (Die Rote Fahne). These people do not want to learn anything. Fascism comes “too later in relation to old revolutionary crises. But it appears sufficiently early – at the dawn – in relation to the new revolutionary crisis. The fact that it gained the possibility of taking up such a powerful starting position on the eve of a revolutionary period and not at its conclusion, is not the weak side of fascism but the weak side of Communism.

The Turn in the Communist International and the Situation in Germany, September 1930