Q. What was the Third International?
A. After the collapse of the Second International, Lenin, Trotsky, Liebknecht, Luxemburg, MacLean and Connolly and other Leaders were reduced to leading small sects. The Internationalists of the world in 1916, as the participants of the Zimmerwald Conference joked, could be gathered together in a few stage coaches. The unexpectedness of the betrayal led to the position where the Internationalists, isolated and weak, tended to be a little ultra-left. In order to differentiate themselves from 'Social Patriots' and 'Traitors to Socialism', they were compelled to lay down the fundamental principles of Marxism - the responsibility of Imperialism for War, the right to self-determination of Nationalities, the need for the conquest of power, separation from the practice and policies of reformism. Lenin had declared that the idea that the First World War was a 'war to end wars' was a pernicious fairy-tale of the Labour bosses. If the war was not followed by a series of successful Socialist Revolutions, it would be followed by a second, a third, even a tenth world war till the possible annihilation of mankind. The blood and the suffering in the trenches to the profit of the millionaire monopolists would inevitably provoke a revolt of the peoples against the colossal slaughter.
The principles achieved their justification in the Russian Revolution of 1917, under the leadership of the Bolsheviks. This was followed by a series of revolutions and revolutionary situations from 1917 to 1921. However the young forces of the new International, which was officially founded in 1919, were weak and immature. As a consequence, though the effect of the Russian Revolution was to provoke a wave of radicalisation in most of the countries of Western Europe and the organisation of mass Communist Parties, they were too weak to take advantage of the situation. The first waves of the radicalisation saw the masses turning to their traditional organisations and because of the inexperience, lack of understanding of Marxist theory, method and organisation, and due to their immaturity, the young Communist Parties were incapable of taking advantage of the situation. Thus capitalism was able to stabilize itself temporarily.
In the revolutionary situation in Germany in 1923, because of the policies of the leadership, which went through the same crisis as the leadership of the Bolshevik Party in 1917, the opportunity to take power was missed. After this American Imperialism hastened to come to the aid of German capitalism for fear of 'Bolshevism' in the west. This prepared the way for the degeneration of the Soviet Union, because of its isolation and backwardness, and the corruption and rotting away of the Third International.
In 1923 we had the beginning of the consolidation of the Stalinist Bureaucracy and its usurpation of power in the Soviet Union. A similar process to that which had taken place in the degeneration of the Second International over the decades, took place in a short period of time in the Soviet Union. Having conquered power in a backward country, the Marxists were prepared confidently for the international revolution as the only solution to the problems of the workers of Russia and of the world. But in 1924, Stalin came forward as the representative of Officialdom which had raised itself above the level of the masses of the workers and peasants.
Where 'Art, Science and Government' had remained their preserve, instead of the ideas of Marx and Lenin of the participation in Government and the running of industry by the mass of the population, the vested interests of the privileged layers came to the fore. In the autumn of 1924, Stalin in violation of the traditions of Marxism and Bolshevism, for the first time brought out the utopian theory of 'Socialism in one country'. The Internationalists under Trotsky fought against this theory and predicted that it would result in the collapse of the Communist International and the national degeneration of its sections.
Theory is not an abstraction but a guide to struggle. Theories, when they secure mass support, must represent the interests and pressure of groupings, castes or classes, in society. Thus the theory of 'Socialism in one country', represented the ideology of the ruling caste in the Soviet Union, that layer of Officialdom who were satisfied with the results of the revolution, and did not want their privileged position disturbed. It was this outlook which now began to change the Communist International from an instrument of international revolution into merely a border-guard for the defence of the Soviet Union, which was supposed to be busily constructing Socialism on its own.